Oregon’s Eugene Symphony is set for its final season concert, Verdi’s Requiem, on May 14 with its current music director, Giancarlo Guerrero. Guerrero leaves Eugene to become music director of the Nashville Symphony beginning in 2009-10. During his seven-year tenure in Eugene, Guerrero presided over a period of audience growth and the orchestra’s first expansion of its subscription season in twenty years. The Requiem performance at Hult Center for the Performing Arts will feature the Eugene Symphony Chorus and soprano Michele Capalbo, mezzo-soprano Charlotte Daw Paulsen, tenor Roy Cornelius Smith, and baritone Charles Robert Austin. Following the concert, concertgoers are invited to a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception at the Eugene Hilton. Of his choice to program the Requiem for his final concert, Guerrero said, “I wanted to end my tenure with a piece of music I truly love, and be able to share this moment not only with the musicians of the orchestra, but with the Symphony chorus as well.” During Guerrero’s tenure in Eugene, he launched the Laura Avery Visiting Masters program, in which young area musicians work alongside Eugene Symphony musicians; he also programmed music by American composers including John Adams, John Corigliano, Aaron Jay Kernis, Jennifer Higdon, Philip Rothman, Michael Daugherty, and Roberto Sierra. Danail Rachev replaces Guerrero as music director with the start of the Eugene Symphony’s 2009-10 season.
Posted May 5, 2009
