The Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia is now on a tour that will bring it to Santa Barbara — not to mention the whole of the West Coast — for the first time.
Conducted by Osmo Vänskä, with Curtis graduate (and local favorite) pianist Yefim Bronfman, as soloist, the all-student orchestra will perform in Santa Barbara at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 18 in the Granada Theater, 1214 State St. The Granada concert is sponsored by the Community Arts Music Association (CAMA).
The program for this concert will consist of a new work, Dai Wei‘s “Awakening Lion,” commissioned for this tour; Robert Schumann‘s “Piano Concerto in a-minor, Opus 54” (1845); and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov‘s inimitable oriental fantasy, “Scheherazade, Opus 35” (1888).
The Curtis Institute of Philadelphia was founded by Mary Louise Curtis Bok (1876-1970). She was the mother of actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., who lived in Solvang in his later years.
It did not take very long after its 1924 founding for the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia to be come a force to be reckoned with in American music.
This might have been expected when they hired as part of their original faculty, the likes of pianist Josef Hofmann, conductor Leopold Stokowski. By 1940, they had put the composers Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and Gian-Carlo Menotti on the path to greatness, and, speaking personally, I would have to say to them, as Feisal said to Lawrence’s retreating back: “What I owe you, I can never repay.”
Our own experience with the Music Academy’s annually reborn Festival Orchestra should prepare us for high excellence in a “student” orchestra — excellence, I must say, that often rivals the most gilded and prestigious ensembles of the great world. This band is likely to dazzle us.
“DAI WEI is originally from China,” says her website. “Her musical journey navigates in the spaces between east and west, classical and pop, electronic and acoustic, innovation and tradition. She often draws from eastern philosophy and aesthetics to create works with contemporary resonance and reflects an introspection on how these multidimensional conflicts and tension can create and inhabit worlds of their own.
“Her artistry is nourished by the Asian and Chinese Ethnic cultures in many different ways. Being an experimental vocalist, she performs herself as a Khoomei throat singer in her recent compositions, through which are filtered by different experiences and backgrounds as a calling that transcends genres, races, and labels.”
All remaining tickets to the Curtis Symphony Orchestra are $10, or free for people ages 7-17. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Granada ticket office, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara.