“Oakland Symphony has announced a large, varied schedule for the next season, unusually ambitious,” writes Janos Gereben in Tuesday’s (6/4) San Francisco Classical Voice. “From the opening concert in the Paramount Theater on Oct. 11, with jazz and grand opera, to the season-closing one on May 15, 2020, with a symphony by Amy Beach, and an oratorio about the Underground Railroad, Oakland Symphony is covering more ground than most … Take the Feb. 22, 2020, concert as an example of meaningful and adventurous programming: It offers Steve Martland’s Crossing the Border for double string orchestra and ballet dancers, Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins in F, and Mahler’s The Song of the Earth with string instruments from the Violins of Hope project. The instruments belonged to inmates in Holocaust concentration camps … The Oct. 11 opening concert consists of the mighty Prologue from Boito’s Mefistofele, with the Oakland Symphony Chorus and children’s chorus; and a new composition and performance by pianist Taylor Eigsti and trumpeter Josiah Woodson…. The season-closing concert features Amy Beach’s Symphony No. 2, Gaelic, a work contemporary with Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony, and an epic oratorio by Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell based on the writings of William Still, the hero of the Underground Railroad.”
In photo: Michael Morgan, music director of the Oakland Symphony
Posted June 10, 2019
