“The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has announced their 2016-2017 season,” writes Veronica Volk on Tuesday (2/9) at station WXXI (Rochester, N.Y.). “At Kodak Hall, Music Director Ward Stare emceed the free event Tuesday night, while the orchestra played excerpts from the upcoming season. Stare says they’ll be playing some pieces that regular RPO audiences may be familiar with—Mahler’s Fifth symphony, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, and the First Symphony by Brahms—but he says they are also featuring an American music festival for three weekends in the fall, which will include pieces never before played by the orchestra. ‘Having grown up here, having been aware of the rich tradition that we have here, and of course being an American conductor myself, and the music conductor of a great American orchestra, it just made sense as a nice way to highlight that aspect of our history.’ … Other highlights … include Mozart’s Requiem performed with the Eastman-Rochester Chorus” and a semi-staged production of Puccini’s La Boheme. “We had a concert opera which we brought to the theater a year ago, and it was very well received by the audience,” says Stare. “So I wanted to bring it back to the season.”
Posted February 11, 2016
In photo: Rochester Philharmonic Music Director Ward Stare
