ROMEO & JULIET

Friday, March 24, 2023 ∙ 8 pm
Paramount Theatre, Oakland

A love forbidden. A love immortal. Tonight, the Oakland Symphony performs music from Prokofiev’s passionate Romeo and Juliet. One of ballet’s greatest scores also stands as one of the great symphonic showpieces.    

Tonight’s conductor, Joseph Young, has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony, the New World Symphony, and the orchestras of Detroit, Phoenix, Rochester, Seattle, as well as orchestras around the globe.  He presently serves as Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony.  “An emotional high point…a highly charged performance,” The New York Times reported from Spoleto. “[He] packed a considerable wallop.” 

Joining Joseph and the Oakland Symphony tonight is 2018 Sphinx Competition Ruben Rengel to perform arguably the most beloved of all Violin Concertos, the E-minor of Mendelssohn.   

We are also pleased to present the first Oakland Symphony performance of Lera Auerbach’s “Icarus.”   Her triumphant work from 2006 has been performed frequently in the years since. You will hear a vibrant, colorful rumination on the myth and its meaning.   

There are two concerts in May with the Oakland Symphony. On Thursday, May the Fourth (be with you) we present “The Music of John Williams” right here at The Paramount.  

And on May 19, Tito Muñoz will conduct a program, “Songs of Protest.” This features music by Beethoven, Samuel Barber, and the world premiere of Martin Rokeach’s Bodies on the Line: The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike, commissioned by the Oakland Symphony.   

Thank you for attending this evening. I know you will enjoy tonight’s program under guest conductor Joseph Young.

Sincerely, 

Dr. Mieko Hatano, Executive Director

LERA AUERBACH
Icarus

FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64
     I. Allegro molto appassionato.
     II. Andante
     III. Allegretto non troppo; Allegro molto vivace

Rubén Rengel, violin

INTERMISSION

SERGEI PROKOFIEV
Romeo and Juliet 
Selected movements from Suites 1 & 2 

“The Montagues and the Capulets”
“Juliet – the little girl”
“Romeo and Juliet (The balcony scene)”
“Friar Laurence”
“Romeo and Juliet before parting”
“The death of Tybalt”
“Romeo and Juliet’s grave”

Justin Howard - Romeo
Jen Macfarlane - Juliet and Mercutio
Myles Brown - Friar Laurence and Tybalt
Clive Worsley - Prologue
California Shakespeare Theater

Tonight’s concert is generously sponsored by

     
     

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