The Santa Barbara City College Symphony will perform a program of Slavic music including Tchaikovsky’s beloved “Violin Concerto,” 7 p.m. Sunday, May 5 at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre.
The SBCC Symphony is directed by interim conductor and SBCC professor Valerie Malvinni and features her daughter, the award-winning violinist Sofia Malvinni as soloist, playing Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.35.”
The program opens with Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” and in the second half offers an opportunity for the audience to hear Dvořák’s “Symphony no. 5 in F Major,” his first mature work in the genre that shows him at the highest level of musical accomplishment that will lead to his ascendancy on the international stage.
“I am honored to have had the opportunity to direct the SBCC Symphony this year while our multi-talented conductor James Mooy has been on sabbatical,” Malvinni said.
“Our first concert in December was incrediblem” she said. “We had world-renowned classical guitarist Eliot Fisk perform a new guitar concerto by Giovanni Piacentini in its USA premiere. Also on the program was Rossini’s ‘L’Italiana in Algeri’ and a lesser known work ‘Symphony No.1’ by the African American composer Florence Price.
“On May 5, we have another incredible concert planned for you. It presents a local venue for Santa Barbara audiences to hear a one of their own at the start of her career performing the romantically expressive and a virtuoso violinist’s right-of-passage, the ‘Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.’ “
Soloist Sofia Malvinni is a former dual-enrollment student of SBCC and Dos Pueblos High School (early) graduate, where she was in the Engineering Academy. She is currently a sophomore at San Francisco Conservatory, and studies in Munich, Germany.
She has won several awards, including her most recent third place at the Hong Kong International Youth Violin Competition in April.
When she was a freshman and only 17, Malvinni won the SFCM’s Concerto Competition with Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No.1.” She was a three-time winner of the Santa Barbara Symphony Youth Symphony Concerto Competition; and in 2023 took first place in the adult division of the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation.
She has performed before audiences in Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands.