Three Local Premieres and More Slated for Riverside Symphony's 2016-17 Season

An impressive and fascinating breadth of repertory will mark Riverside Symphony's 2016-17, three-concert Alice Tully Hall series. Under the baton of founding Music Director George Rothman, the orchestra's longstanding reputation for programmatic innovation will be on full display via three lovingly curated concerts, all delivering top-notch performances of beloved masterpieces in fresh contexts.

Season highlights include three local premieres, including works by American composers Donald Crockett and Anna Weesner as well as Mexican composer Juan Trigos.

In addition, a stellar lineup of young virtuosos-performing solo works of a decidedly vernacular, even off-beat bent-will be spotlighted throughout the season.

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PROGRAMS:

Singing With Strings

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2016, 8pm

Featuring Alexi Kenney, violin

WEESNER Still Things Move (2002-2003)

STRAVINSKY Concerto in D (1946)

PIAZZOLLA The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1965-1970)

American composer Anna Weesner's haunting essay in melody and motion is answered by Igor Stravinsky's urbane-yet-poignant Neoclassical charmer. Argentine Tango master Astor Piazzolla, on the other hand, delivers a swanky, sprawling, unapologetically vernacular showpiece.

The recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Alexi Kenney has been praised by the New York Times for "...immediately drawing listeners in with his beautifully phrased and delicate playing." His win at the 2013 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition at the age of nineteen led to a critically acclaimed debut recital at Carnegie Weill Hall.

Composers at Play

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2017, 8pm

Featuring Ha Young Jung, contrabass

IBERT Divertissement (1930)

TRIGOS Concerto for Doublebass (2008) New York Premiere

F.J. HAYDN Symphony in 91 Eb major (1788)

Jacques Ibert's effervescent in Parisian Music Hall time capsule and contemporary Mexican composer Juan Trigos' endearingly brash assimilation of high and low cultural reveal a daring bent for the carefree, a trait most famously associated with their Classical forbear, Joseph Haydn. Indeed, even in his most psychologically complex symphonic narratives, The Master's smile and wink are never far.

2013 Koussevitsky Young Artist Award first-prize winner Ha Young Jung has captivated audiences and critics with her performances in orchestral and chamber settings throughout Europe and American. A winner in numerous other international competitions, she is a current doctoral candidate at Boston University following studies at the Royal College of Music, The Juilliard School and Yale University.

Home Sweet Home

SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2017, 8pm

Featuring Robert Beleni?, guitar

RAVEL le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917)

PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony (1917)

CROCKETT En la Tierra (2011) New York Premiere

HOLST St. Paul's Suite (1912)

Following the heated nationalist fervor of the latter 19th-century Romantics, composers in the dawning modern age largely settled into a more sublimated expression of their national musical heritage, which they themselves continued to develop and recast. Entries from England (Holst), France (Ravel), and Russia (Prokofiev) - all composed within a five-year period-bear witness to this phenomenon, while contemporary West Coast composer Donald Crockett's winsome, blue-tinged, decidedly American guitar concerto reaffirms it.

The only guitarist ever chosen for Young Concert Artists roster, prizewinning guitarist and Croat native Robert Belini? has concertized extensively throughout Europe with orchestras and in recital. A champion of contemporary music as well as the standard guitar repertory, he has premiered and recorded numerous new works.

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Tickets range in price from $32 to $64. Subscriptions, group rates, family plan, and student tickets are available. To purchase, call (212) 864-4197 or visit www.riversidesymphony.org.