NOTES FROM CALIFORNIA

Friday, February 24, 2023 ∙ 8 pm
Paramount Theatre

Tonight, the Oakland Symphony brings the music home to California, a cradle to composers since the 1930s. 

Igor Stravinsky settled for a time in Beverly Hills, and his pathbreaking Symphony in Three Movements is a product of those years. From years more recent, you’ll find the music of Gabriella Smith and Reena Esmail fresh and focused on issues meaningful to each of us. 

For this program, we welcome to the podium Bay Area native Vinay Parameswaran. He has served as Associate Conductor with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst in both concert and opera performances. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Vinay has conducted the orchestras of Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, and numerous others. The Philadelphia Inquirer has noted his “variety of phrasing and ability to find areas of sensitivity in the score that many don’t detect.” 

There are several concerts to look forward to this Spring: On March 24, Joseph Young conducts music from Prokofiev’s passionate Romeo and Juliet. On May the Fourth (be with you!), your Oakland Symphony performs The Music of John Williams – from Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and many more. Then on May 19, Tito Muñoz leads the world premiere of the Oakland Symphony commissioned “Bodies on the Line: The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike” by Martin Rokeach. The composer, based in Moraga, has been heard previously at Oakland Symphony concerts, and also across the Bay Area, the state, the nation and globally. This commission, one of Michael Morgan’s last, has been keenly anticipated by all of us since well before the pandemic. 

I would also like to bring to your attention a performance on Monday, March 20 at First Congregational Church in Berkeley when our friends at Cantata Collective will perform Bach’s towering Mass in B minor conducted by Nicholas McGegan. You can learn all about this event at CantataCollective.org. 

Finally, a reminder to subscribers to renew your subscription to the Oakland Symphony’s 2023-24 season. You should have received your renewal packets in the mail. The deadline to renew is Friday, March 24. Please feel free to renew at intermission tonight. And if you would like to join the Oakland Symphony’s subscriber family, you may do so here tonight. 

Thank you for attending tonight, and for all you do in support of your Oakland Symphony.

Sincerely, 

Dr. Mieko Hatano
Executive Director

GABRIELLA SMITH
Tumblebird Contrails (Bay Area Premiere)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
En blanc et noir (orch. Robin Holloway)
     I. Avec emportement
     II. Lent. Sombre
     III. Scherzando

INTERMISSION

REENA ESMAIL
The History of Red
     
      Kathryn Mueller, soprano

IGOR STRAVINSKY
Symphony in Three Movements
     I. Overture; Allegro
     II. Andante; Interlude: L’istesso tempo
     III. Con moto

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