OPENING NIGHT:
SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE!

Friday, October 14, 2022,  8 pm
Paramount Theatre, Oakland

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you back to the Paramount Theatre for the Oakland Symphony’s 2022-23 Season. Over the next eight months six acclaimed conductors of the new generation will grace our podium. Each brings their own singular personality and perspective to music making. 

Ankush Kumar Bahl, tonight’s conductor, is a Bay Area native of Indian descent. He recently completed his first season as Music Director of the Omaha Symphony and has guest conducted the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, 

New York Philharmonic, and many others. Kurt Masur was an important mentor. With his dedication to education, Ankush has in turn nurtured many developing musicians. 

Tonight, we also welcome Demarre McGill, the Principal Flute of the Seattle Symphony. He is counted among the instrument’s most influential educators as coach and master class presenter. He performs music by acclaimed Chinese-American composer Chen Yi, her concerto The Golden Flute. 

This evening’s concert also includes the colorful essay Fate Now Conquers by Carlos Simon, and Berlioz’ fiery hallucination, the “Symphonie fantastique.” As you have come to expect from the Oakland Symphony, the program spans centuries, cultures, and communities. It brings us all into the same space to share music’s duality of diversity and commonality. Hearing it together, we all become closer. 

Five further programs follow this one. Each will be its own adventure. I am thrilled to be taking this season-long odyssey with you for every unanticipated surprise and every transformative moment.

Sincerely,
Dr. Mieko Hatano, Executive Director

Ankush Kumar Bahl, conductor
Demarre McGill, flute

Carlos Simon
Fate Now Conquers

Chen Yi 
The Golden Flute

I. Andante, lyrically and vividly
II. Larghetto, mystically
III. Allegro, energetically

Demarre McGill, flute

INTERMISSION

Hector Berlioz 
Symphonie Fantastique, Opus 14

I. Dreams, Passions: Largo; Allegro agitato e appassionato assai
II. A Ball: Valse--Allegro non troppo
III. Scene in the Fields: Adagio
IV. March to the Scaffold: Allegretto non troppo
V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath: Larghetto; Allegro

The 2022-2023 Season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded in part by the East Bay Music Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and supported by the Oakland City Council and funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.