Romance & Celebration
Thursday 7:30 pm September 30, 2010
Saturday 8:00 pm October 2, 2010
Sunday 2:30 pm October 3, 2010

Maestro Cleve has chosen a program of love and jubilation to open our 2010-11 season. Schumann's tender, exuberant first Symphony was written during the 'spring of love' that followed marriage to his adored Clara. Love's darker side is captured by Mahler's four hauntingly beautiful songs of lament and longing, sung passionately by international sensation, baritone Nathan Gunn. The mood turns bright again with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, one of the composer's most joyful works.

Gypsy Airs
Saturday 8:00 pm October 16, 2010
Sunday 2:30 pm October 17, 2010

Our second program transports us into the worlds of Hungarian, Romanian and Spanish Gypsy music, and presents dazzling challenges for our soloist. Who better to join Maestro Vajda than fellow Hungarian Lajos Sarkozi, 19-year-old violin prodigy and heir to a long line of celebrated Gypsy musicians, who first caught the attention of the classical music world while performing in restaurants in Prague.

Mozart & Schubert
Saturday 8:00 pm December 4, 2010
Sunday 2:30 pm December 5, 2010

Mournful or celebratory, the French horn is always a distinctive voice in the orchestra. With her satin tone, Principal French Horn Meredith Brown is an audience favorite, and we are delighted to feature her as our December soloist. Noted Italian opera maestro Giampaolo Bisanti will open with one of Rossini's most beloved opera overtures, and close with Schubert's lighthearted Third Symphony, written at the height of a Rossini craze in Vienna and filled with dance and melody to match.

Idylls & Dances
Saturday 8:00 pm January 15, 2011
Sunday 2:30 pm January 16, 2011

The new year opens with Wagner's majestic showpiece for strings, Siegfried Idyll, written for the birth of his son. Adam Golka, recent winner of two of America's most prestigious awards for pianists, follows with Liszt's fiery concerto on the medieval Dance of Death. The same theme fascinated Rachmaninoff, and we can hear it again in Symphonic Dances, his last orchestral work and one of his greatest, summing up a lifetime of music. This is big orchestra music at its best.

Brahms German Requiem
Thursday 7:30 pm March 24, 2011
Saturday 8:00 pm March 26, 2011
Sunday 2:30 pm March 27, 2011

Brahms called his visionary masterpiece a human requiem, conceived not as a mass for the dead but as comfort and consolation for the living. Composed for the concert hall, it combines the forces of the Chorale, soprano and baritone soloists, and full orchestra. Don't miss hearing this glorious work performed in the vibrant California Theatre.

Nakamatsu Plays Two
Thursday 7:30 pm May 12, 2011
Saturday 8:00 pm May 14, 2011
Sunday 2:30 pm May 15, 2011

Local favorite and international star Jon Nakamatsu performs two featured works on our program, beginning with a world premiere: a double concerto created for him and clarinetist Jon Manasse by Cuban composer D'Rivera. Nakamatsu follows with Tchaikovsky's mighty Concerto No. 1, one of the most popular works ever composed for piano. Stravinsky's witty neo-classical Pulcinella Suite, originally written for a comic ballet, opens the evening.

Spices, Bandoneon & Italy
Saturday 8:00 pm June 4, 2011
Sunday 2:30 pm June 5, 2011

Principal percussionist Galen Lemmon and Steve Hearn shine in Israeli composer Avner Dorman's spectacular double percussion concerto, featuring many of the tuned "keyboard" percussion instruments; watch the mallets fly. We end our season in the warmth of Mendelssohn's Italian sun, delighting in the high-spirited Carnival dances that conclude his vivacious symphony.  The program opens with another concerto, this time for the Argentine bandoneon - a grand work by the nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla.