Laguna Playhouse
Broadway in Orange County

PACIFIC SYMPHONY PERFORMS LAURIDSEN, RAVEL, BERNSTEIN AND STRAUSS IN LYRICAL PROGRAM FEATURING VIOLINIST ANNE AKIKO MEYERS AND CONCERTMASTER-DESIGNATE DENNIS KIM

Date:

Premiere violinist Anne Akiko Meyers returns to play with Pacific Symphony for “A Hero’s Life” to close out the 2017-18 Classical series, joined by Concertmaster-Designate Dennis Kim.

The Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, will perform an evening of emotional, lyrical music prominently featuring the violin, including Meyers performing Lauridsen’s ethereal “O Magnum Mysterium” and Ravel’s rhapsodic “Tzigane.” Then, concertmaster-designate Dennis Kim will be featured in “A Hero’s Life” (“Ein Heldenleben”), Strauss’ autobiographical tone poem depicting confidence, unrest, the battle of life, love and serenity. Image magnification provides a closer look at Meyers’ elegant performance and Dennis Kim’s debut as concertmaster-designate with the Symphony. Other works featured on the program include Glinka’s Overture to “Ruslan and Ludmilla” and a violin rendition of Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from “West Side Story.”

“A Hero’s Life” takes place Thursday through Saturday, June 14–16, at 8 p.m. in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Tickets are $25–$116. A preview talk with Alan Chapman begins at 7 p.m. This classical concert will also appear in an abridged matinee performance, “Ein Heldenleben,” on Sunday, June 17 at 3 p.m. in the Concert Hall; tickets are $25–$84. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (714) 755-5799 or visit PacificSymphony.org.

A heralded violin superstar, Meyers is one of the most in-demand violinists in the world, described by the Los Angeles Times as a performer of “vigorous mastery, unflinching technical skills, and stylish elegance.” Regularly performing as guest soloist with the world’s top orchestras, she presents ground-breaking recitals and is a best-selling recording artist with 36 albums. Meyers is known for her passionate performances, purity of sound, deeply poetic interpretations, innovative programming and commitment to commissioning significant new works from contemporary composers. A champion of living composers, Meyers collaborates closely with many of today’s leading composers. She has expanded the violin repertoire by commissioning and premiering works by composers such as Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Arvo Pärt, Gene Pritsker, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Somei Satoh, Adam Schoenberg and Joseph Schwantner.

 Originally taking its libretto from a Gregorian responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas, Morten Lauridsen’s Grammy-nominated choral piece “O Magnum Mysterium” describes the birth of the Savior, through this refreshing arrangement for violin and orchestra that lifts the listener through its searing lyricism and visceral spirituality.

First performed in Amsterdam in October of 1924 with Pierre Monteux conducting the Concertgebouw, Maurice Ravel’s “Tzigane” is a rhapsodic composition that has a distinctive exotic flavor, delivered through a mixture of sparse and dramatic orchestration—“tzigane” is the French translation for the generic European term “gypsy.”

Completed in 1898, Richard Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”) is the composer’s eighth work in the genre of tone poems and will feature the concertmaster-designate in a number of virtuosic solo violin passages. Seemingly autobiographical in nature, this massive composition quotes Strauss’ earlier works, including “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and “Don Quixote,” while employing the technique of leitmotif reminiscent of Wagner’s compositions to tell a heroic sonic story.

Featured in the virtuosic solo violin passages will be Dennis Kim, the recently appointed concertmaster-designate of Pacific Symphony. “In Dennis Kim, I welcome a brilliant violinist, consummate musician, and a dedicated musical partner,” said Music Director Carl St.Clair. “As one who has been concertmaster of leading international orchestras, he is just the right artist to lead Pacific Symphony and its wonderful musicians toward all our musical aspirations.”

 

About Pacific Symphony
Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair since 1990, has been the resident orchestra of Orange County’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for over a decade. Founded in 1978, the Symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 50 years and is not only a fixture of musical life in Southern California but also is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scenes.

In April 2018, Pacific Symphony made its debut at Carnegie Hall, where it was invited to perform as part of a yearlong celebration of composer Philip Glass’s 80th birthday. The Symphony made its first-ever tour to China this year, with performances in five cities, including Shanghai and Beijing. On June 29, Pacific Symphony will be making its debut on Great Performances on PBS performing Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: A Dream of America.”

In Orange County, the orchestra presents more than 100 concerts and events each year and a rich array of education and community engagement programs, reaching more than 300,000 residents of all ages. The Symphony has been recognized with multiple ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and included among the country’s five most innovative orchestras by the League of American Orchestras. The Symphony’s education and community engagement activities have also been recognized by the League, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

PacificSymphony.org

 

About Dennis Kim
Dennis Kim is the new concertmaster of Pacific Symphony. A citizen of the world, Mr. Kim was born in Korea, raised in Canada and educated in the United States. He has spent more than a decade leading orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Most recently, he was concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. He was first appointed concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22. He then served as the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, before going on to lead the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland.

As guest concertmaster, Mr. Kim has performed on four continents, leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Montpelier Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra of Navarra. He served as guest concertmaster with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on their 10-city tour of the United Kingdom and led the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in their BBC Proms debut in 2014.

After making his solo debut at the age of 14 with the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Kim has gone on to perform as a soloist with many of the most important orchestras in China and Korea. Highlights include performing on 10 hours’ notice to replace an ailing William Preucil, performing Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” 20 times in one week and touring Japan with the Busan Philharmonic in 2008. During his tenure as concertmaster with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, he was featured annually as a soloist. Over the last two seasons, he was a guest soloist with the Lebanon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra NOW, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Haydn to Glass and Penderecki. Future engagements include those with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba.

A dedicated teacher, Mr. Kim is currently on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada’s PRISMA festival and the Interlochen Center for the Arts as Valade Concertmaster in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra summer program. He has also been on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Korean National University of the Arts, Yonsei University, Tampere Conservatory and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival and Suolahti International Music Festival. His students have been accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, Colburn School, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory and the Queen Elizabeth College of Music and play in orchestras around the world.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, Mr. Kim’s teachers include Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott.

He plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius, on permanent loan from a generous donor.

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