June 16, 2022: SR Symphony to air concerts on TV
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, June 16, 2022
Santa Rosa Symphony, in partnership with Northern California Public Media, will televise four of its 2021-2022 Classical Series concerts in July on two NorCal Public channels: Public Broadcasting Service channel KRCB and its sister station, non-PBS channel KPJK of San Mateo.
All four of the concerts in the Santa Rosa Symphony World Premiere Series were conducted by the symphony’s Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong at the Green Music Center's Weill Hall on the Sonoma State University campus before a live audience. Read full article.
June 2, 2022: Santa Rosa Symphony unveils family concerts
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, June 2, 2022
The Santa Rosa Symphony has unveiled its 2022-23 Family Concert Series, a set of three concerts from October through April aimed at young people of all ages.
Conductor Bobby Rogers will lead the first two concerts, while Santa Rosa Symphony Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong will conduct the final concert. All concerts are held at 3 p.m. in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park.
Read full The Press Democrat article.
April 29, 2022: Santa Rosa Symphony premieres "Valley of the Moon," a new work rooted in Sonoma County
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, April 29, 2022
Tourists often come to Sonoma County to experience the crashing surf and towering redwoods, but few pay attention to the fog-swept landscape as intensely as composer and pianist Michael Daugherty.
Daugherty took a road trip here in May 2021, bumping along back roads from the Valley of the Moon to the Sonoma Coast to collect sights and sounds that would help him shape a 30-minute work, “Valley of the Moon,” commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony.
Read full article now.
March 17, 2022: Santa Rosa Symphony announces new season
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, March 17, 2022
The Santa Rosa Symphony has announced its 95th season for 2022-2023, highlighted by the returns of the choral concert in December and popular pianist Alexander Toradze along with Conductor Laureate Bruno Ferrandis in February 2023.
The four-year First Symphony project will continue with a world premiere of a symphonic work by Angélica Negrón in March 2023, and the four-year “Rach & the Hollywood Sound” project will continue in January 2023 with Max Steiner’s Symphonic Suite from “Gone with the Wind.” Continue reading
March 17, 2022: Movie night at the Santa Rosa Symphony with Rachmaninoff
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, March 17, 2022
When the Santa Rosa Symphony performs its penultimate concert of the season this weekend, it will launch a four-year project that fulfills two long-term dreams of Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong.
The “Rach & the Hollywood Sound” program will not only bring to light the rarely heard symphonic works of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff which are often overshadowed by his other works, it also will introduce the serious music of many Hollywood film composers. Continue reading
February 11, 2022: Reviving concerto of Black female composer
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, February 11, 2022
When pianist Michelle Canntakes center stage this weekendwith the Santa Rosa Symphony,she’ll put her talent for musicalstorytelling to the test. She’ll beplaying Florence Price’s PianoConcerto in One Movement,which not only covers a lot ofground in 20 minutes but hasquite a backstory, too.
Read full story.
January 8, 2022: Young composer premieres first symphony with Santa Rosa Symphony
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, January 8, 2022
Gabriella Smith, a native of Berkeley who recently moved to Seattle, started piano lessons as a young child, then took up the violin at age 8.
“I wasn’t very good at either,” she said. “When I was 8, I started writing, and when I was 11, I started showing compositions to my piano teacher. After that ... I became better and better in writing music and worse and worse in piano.”
Now 30, Smith already is considered one of the brightest stars in the firmament of up-and-coming classical music composers. She has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to write an organ concerto, scheduled to premiere on Feb. 22 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
And this weekend, she’ll premiere her 30-minute symphony, “One,” with the Santa Rosa Symphony at the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park.
READ MORE
November 7, 2021: Santa Rosa Symphony gala honors president, CEO
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, November 7, 2021
Friday night was a big, big night for Santa Rosa Symphony President and CEO Alan Silow at the Green Music Center. Silow was feted for his 70th birthday and his 20th year as the leading advocate and COVID-era savior of the symphony, regarded as one of the most vital and successful regional orchestras in the country.
After taking a year off because of the pandemic, the Santa Rosa Symphony pulled out all the stops for its 2021 gala, welcoming guests with a champagne reception at the Prelude Restaurant and a sit-down dinner in the Person lobby.
In between the bubbly and the grand meal, pianist Kathleen Tagg and clarinetist David Krakauer performed an intimate recital in Weill Hall. Krakauer is appearing with the symphony this weekend.
Read full article and see the gallery of photos on The Press Democrat.
October 1, 2021: Santa Rosa Symphony opens season with Mozart
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, October 1, 2021
Violinist Julian Rhee, a 21-year-old senior at the New England Conservatory, spent most of the pandemic with his family in Wisconsin, doing some soul searching and back-to-basics work on his instrument.
. . . Rhee originally was scheduled to perform the Mozart concerto during the finale of the Santa Rosa Symphony’s 2020-2021 season. Instead, he’ll kick off the 2021-2022 season with the beloved concerto during three concerts with the symphony this weekend — with live audiences for the first time since February 2020 — at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall. Rounding out the program will be Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” Libby Larsen’s “Deep Summer Music” and Gabriella Smith’s “Rush.”
Read more at The Press Democrat.
August 26, 2021: Going big this season
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, August 26, 2021
Santa Rosa Symphony plans on making up for lost time after a creative but stunted year thanks to pandemic
Santa Rosa Symphony Music Director FrancescoLecce-Chong is thrilled to welcome audiences back to the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall for the 2021-2022 season, and not just because their energy lifts the orchestra to new heights. After pulling off a season of virtual concerts with smaller orchestras in 2020-2021, Lecce-Chong is excited to be able to present an ambitious array of music that goes above and beyond what the orchestra would normally present in one season.
Among other things, he is looking forward to sharing four major world premieres and launching a second multi-year project, Rachmaninoff and the Hollywood Sound, which brings together some of the composer’s larger works with smaller works by influential Hollywood composers of the past and present. The idea is to illustrate their shared lush, lyrical sound.
Read on
August 26, 2021: Santa Rosa Pops goes live for 2021-2022
by Kathleen Coates, The Press Democrat, August 26, 2021
Santa Rosa Symphony Pops Series conductor Michael Berkowitz and his performers are rarin’ to go as the 2021-2022 season gets underway this fall. . . .
“We’re just all really anxious and excited to get back and play and make music for everyone,” he said. “The musicians are all vaccinated and they are working hard to make sure everything comes off.”
Read on.
July 9, 2021: Classical Reunion: The Santa Rosa Symphony is poised to return to the Green Music Center for a full season
by Diane Peterson, The Press Democrat, July 9, 2021
The Santa Rosa Symphony will return to the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall at Sonoma State University — with a full orchestra onstage and a live audience in the seats — for a complete 2021-2022 season of seven concert sets, plus an extra concert in June 2022 and two new subscription packages.
“I’m thrilled to welcome audiences back to the Green Music Center for the unparalleled experience of live orchestra music,” said Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong. “After a seasonal of virtual performances with a smaller orchestra, an ambitious lineup of grand orchestral classics by Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, Elgar and Respighi will bring our full orchestra back to the stage.”
Read on.