California Symphony Collaborates With San Francisco's Amateur Music Network For Season Opener

California Symphony and Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera will launch the 2024-2025 season, showcasing the crowning achievements of composers at the peak of their powers, with two thrilling concerts celebrating the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, September 22, 2024 at 4pm at Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek).

The concerts open with a vivacious and powerful overture by pioneering 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc, who was well known during her lifetime but whose work is only now being performed widely. Following Farrenc's overture is Beethoven's instantly recognizable final symphony, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces in classical music. Powerful and uplifting, the work's final movement Ode to Joy has become an enduring anthem for unity.

Four internationally acclaimed singers with Bay Area connections – Laquita Mitchell, soprano; Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; and Sidney Outlaw, baritone – join the California Symphony and the 100-member strong San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) Chorus for these performances.

California Symphony's Saturday performance on September 21 will be preceded by a free Pop Up event in partnership with the Amateur Music Network. From 5-5:30pm at Water Light Public Plaza (1501 Locust St., Walnut Creek), Donato Cabrera will lead an open workshop of Ode to Joy for amateur musicians. Registration (which is free, but required) is open now.

“The two works I chose to begin our 2024-25 concert series not only help define and celebrate what we're exploring throughout the entire season, but they also represent what I believe to be a defining characteristic of the California Symphony, which is a sense of adventure,” Cabrera says. “Like the uncorking of a bottle of champagne, the incredibly elegant and exuberant overture by the 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc is an intriguing introduction to a composer unfairly neglected and rarely performed. Without intermission and with a sense of audaciousness, we will dive right into the 200th anniversary performance of one of the greatest artistic creations ever conceived, the last symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. In hearing these two works in such closeness to one another, it is my hope that both equally inform and enhance the other, giving all of us a truly unique and rewarding experience."

Louise Farrenc, largely unknown in the U.S. until recent years, is considered by some to be one of France's most gifted 19th-century musicians. Born into an artistic family – her father and brother both being Rome Prize-winning sculptors – Farrenc lived at the Sorbonne, and at age 15 became the first woman accepted to study music composition at the Paris Conservatory. She concertized throughout France for decades, and at age 38 became the only woman until the 20th century to hold the position of Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory. Farrenc wrote many pieces for piano, as well as a significant number of chamber music and orchestral works. Her bold and dynamic Overture No. 2 in E-flat, which opens California Symphony's season, was one of her first works for orchestra, written in 1834 when she was thirty years old and already a formidable composer.

A masterpiece that celebrates our shared humanity, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was revolutionary in its time and remains one of the most iconic pieces of music in history. Not only was it longer than most symphonies that came before it, it was also the first ever to feature vocal soloists and a full choir. Composed by Beethoven when he was almost completely deaf, the Symphony is loved around the world as a symbol of unity and happiness, particularly because of the well-known setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem, Ode to Joy. As California Symphony program annotator Scott Foglesong puts it, “For many, that meaning is wrapped up in a hope, or even a certainty, in a future that will be better, that the human spirit will win out in the end, that if we just believe in ourselves enough, present difficulties will give way to future happiness. . . We are all blessed with the divine spark, Beethoven says: it is our universal, imperishable and eternal birthright. All we have to do is claim it.”

Illustrating California Symphony's signature approach to creating vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers, the 2024-2025 season features the iconic final symphonies of titans of classical music Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; the unfinished masterpieces of Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert; a Grammy-winning Disney Fantasia-esque concerto for film and orchestra by Bay Area composer Mason Bates paired with Benjamin Britten's lively introduction to the ensemble; a world premiere by the orchestra's 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad; a recent work by Grammy-nominated composer and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon; Joaquin Rodrigo's famous tour-de-force guitar concerto Concierto de Aranjuez; and rarely performed music by 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc and 20th-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz.

Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Donato Cabrera since 2013. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area. California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.

Three, four, and five-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under. A 30-minute pre-concert talk and Q&A led by lecturer Scott Fogelsong will begin one hour before each performance. More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org.

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