A second season of guests as orchestra continues search for new music director
Even if the Sarasota Orchestra chooses a new music director in the next few months after an abruptly curtailed concert series, next season will feature more guest conductors leading concerts of some of the most popular classical works.
Because of the coronavirus, Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart was able to lead only one of four scheduled performances earlier this month, and the April Masterworks concerts that were to be conducted by Louisville Symphony Music Director Teddy Abrams were canceled.
“Last summer, the music director search committee foresaw that whoever the music director designate was, if we had one, would not be ready to step in and start their music director duties in the fall of 2020, so we decided to have another season of guest conductors,” said Kerry Smith, the orchestra’s director of artistic planning.
She said the new season “was created with a few cooks in the kitchen, including those guest conductors and tailored to their interests and what they wanted to perform.”
Smith is among the cooks in a committee led by Jeffrey Kahane, the orchestra’s artistic advisor and the music director of the Sarasota Music Festival. The planning committee also includes concertmaster Daniel Jordan and principal flute Betsy Traba.
Kahane will conduct the first and last of the season’s seven Masterworks series concerts. The orchestra also presents three pops concerts, eight chamber concerts and six Great Escapes concerts. Next season also will include three Mozart-focused Discovery concerts, which are designed for those who don’t regularly attend classical music programs.
Some of the Masterworks series conductors will be familiar, including Marcelo Lehninger, who led the opening Discover Beethoven concert in the fall, and Thomas Wilkins and Carl St. Clair, who both return after an absence of several years.
Jordan said there are some themes running through the new season, including the continued celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birthday. His music is featured throughout the year and in an all-Beethoven Chamber Soiree on Dec. 20, just a few days after his actual birthday. And “we have an Americana theme going through the season with Gershwin, Dvorak’s New World Symphony and lesser known pieces by American composers, some of whom have been neglected over the years.”
Kahane will open the Masterworks series Nov. 6-8 with “Masters of Melody” and also serve as the piano soloist in a program featuring Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. He will end the season April 9-11 with the “Russian Tales” concert featuring pianist Garrick Ohlsson playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto, No. 3 on a program that also includes Stravinsky’s “Petroushka.”
“The idea of having two of the world’s greatest pianists, one at the piano and one at the podium, is thrilling to me,” Traba said.
Yaniv Dinur, music director of the New Bedford Symphony, will lead the “Beethoven Violin Concerto” concert Dec. 4-6, with violinist Angelo Xiang Yu, who was featured in concerts during the last two Sarasota Music Festivals. The program also includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Gabriella Smith’s “Field Guide.”
Kensho Watanabe, a former assistant conductor at the Philadelphia Orchestra, will be joined by pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason in the “Musical Heroines” concert Jan. 7-10, featuring Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.”
Feb. 4-7, St. Clair, music director of the Pacific Symphony, will lead the “Symphonie Fantastique” concert featuring Grammy-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich in a program that includes Mozart’s “Overture to the Abduction from the Seraglio,” Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.“
Lenhninger, music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, will join pianist Orion Weiss for “Pictures at an Exhibition” Feb. 18-21, featuring Garnieri’s “Festive Overture,” Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Weiss was recently featured in the Pacifica Quartet’s Sarasota Concert Association program.
Wilkins, music director of the Omaha Symphony, leads “From the New World” March 19-21 with violinist Chee-Yun in a concert that features Jim Beckel’s “Toccata for Orchestra,” Lalo’s “Symphony espagnole” and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony).
Kahane also is compiling a reading list called “Books of Note” with both fiction and nonfiction entries that can help audiences further appreciate the pieces featured during the season.
The Discover Mozart series begins Oct. 3 at the Sarasota Opera House with Stephen Mulligan, assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, and 20-year-old pianist Dominic Cheli, winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition. Cheli will play Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in a program that also includes Britten’s Sinfonietta, Opus 1 and Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor.
On Dec. 2, the “European Holiday” concert will be led by Sameer Patel, associate conductor for the San Diego Symphony, with a program of music by Debussy, Vivaldi and Mozart along with Respighi’s “Trittico Botticelliano.”
“I think it’s wonderful that we’re doing a program so close to Christmas that doesn’t have Christmas carols on it,” said Traba.
Elena Schwarz, a Dudamel Fellow, will lead the final Discover Mozart concert, “Fables and Fantasy,” on May 15, with cellist Ifetaya Ali-Landing, a 17-year-old Sphinx competition winner. It features Dukas “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” as well as Mozart’s Overture to “The Magic Flute,” Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite” and Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations.”
The orchestra’s Pops series opens with Sean O’Laughlin leading “Unforgettable: The American Songbook” with two vocalists (Jan. 22-23). It continues with returning guest conductor Christopher Confessore raising his baton for “The Envelope Please,” featuring award-winning songs from Hollywood and Broadway and featuring three singers, including Susan Egan, the original Belle in Broadway’s “Beauty and the Beast.” And “Revolution: Music of the Beatles” will be presented April 16-17 with guest conductor Stuart Malina.
Confessore will also lead the “Comedy Tonight” Great Escapes concert, which closes that series’ six-concert lineup, April 21-24. Steven Jarvi returns for two of those concerts, the opening “Strike Up the Band,” Oct. 14-17, and “Journey on the Orient Express,” which features music representing different cities where that famed train ride stopped. Michelle Merrill leads a Valentine’s concert Feb. 10-14; William Waldrop leads “Jingle Bells Forever” Dec. 9-13 and David Alan MIller, who has been music director of Albany Symphony since 1992, leads “Beethoven at the Movies” Jan. 13-17.
Orchestra musicians also will be featured in small ensembles for the series of Chamber Soirees.
New subscription sales begin in April. For more information: 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org
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March 28, 2020 at 06:17PM
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Guest conductors and popular favorites fill new Sarasota Orchestra season - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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