South Florida Symphony Orchestra Announces Valentine's Day Weekend Concerts
The concerts will take place on Wednesday, February 12, at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale and on Saturday, February 15, at New World Center in Miami Beach.
Celebrate love in all its dramatic, poetic, erotic, scandalous and insatiable forms as South Florida Symphony Orchestra (SFSO) will present an adventurous Valentine’s Day weekend program featuring three orchestra premieres, headlined by the return of R. Strauss’ Don Juan.
Led by SFSO’s award-winning music director Sebrina María Alfonso and featuring soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra, the concerts will take place on Wednesday, February 12, at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale and on Saturday, February 15, at New World Center in Miami Beach. Both concerts will start at 7:30 p.m. A pre-concert chat with Dr. Alan Mason will take place 30 minutes before the show at The Parker featuring in-depth conversation and insights about the work and composer.
"This Valentine's program is a journey through the many facets of love," says Maestra Alfonso. "From R. Strauss' fervent Don Juan to the serene farewell of his Four Last Songs, each piece paints a vivid picture of love's complexities. While the elegance of J. Strauss II's Blue Danube waltz adds a touch of romantic nostalgia, and Berlioz's ‘King Lear Overture’ delves into the tumultuous depths of love and madness. It's an invigorating program filled with beautiful music that, I believe, speaks directly to the heart."
Don Juan is a swashbuckling escapade that both scandalized and delighted audiences with its eroticism and ultra-modern style when it premiered in 1889, cementing Richard Strauss’ (1864-1949) fame as the genius of his generation, making him a favorite among musical modernists. Meanwhile, his Four Last Songs, a SFSO premiere featuring soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra, is a touchingly beautiful and serene masterpiece, bidding farewell to an illustrious career.
Top Prize Winner of the 2018 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition Wagner Division, soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra has garnered major attention for her work on the operatic and concert stage. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as a soloist in Brahms’ Requiem with The Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of the late James DePreist, her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2014 as “First Lady” in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, singing all nine performances of the opera, three of which were Sirius XM Satellite Broadcasts and David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center debut as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the National Chorale. In 2018, she made her debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica del Estado de Chihuahua in Mexico in a solo concert of arias from Il Trovatore, Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and Turandot. Ms. Shoremount-Obra made her European Operatic debut in 2004 as “Ifigenia” in Handel’s Oreste at the Spoleto Festival, Italy. She has performed numerous operatic roles with a variety of operas and performance groups including Opera Grand Rapids, The American Symphony Orchestra, the LA Philharmonic, Grand Harmonie in Princeton, NJ, Odyssey Opera of Boston, Maryland Opera in Baltimore, New York Philharmonic and more. A champion of new music, Shoremount-Obra has premiered/collaborated with some of today’s most popular and notable composers including Tarik O’Regan, Dan Visconti, John Zorn, and Paola Prestini. She is a 2004 New York Regional Winner and National Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She has also won numerous awards from other organizations, including the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation and has since been supported with supplemental grants from the same foundation. She is the 2016 winner of the Ursula Springer Award from the Wagner Society of New York and together with pianist Christopher Cooley, the 2019 Second Prize Winner in the Joy In Singing International Art Song Competition.
The program also features SFSO’s premiere of Austrian composer Johann Strauss (ii)’s (1825-1899) The Blue Danube, the world’s most famous waltz. Originally written as a choral piece for the Vienna Men’s Choral Association, Strauss adapted it for orchestra soon after it debuted. Epitomizing the symphonic richness and variety of Strauss’s dance music, it ultimately earned him acclaim as the “waltz king,” and has become the best-known of his many dance pieces.
SFSO’s premiere of Hector Berlioz’s (1803-1869) tumultuous “King Lear Overture” (Le roi Lear), perhaps his grandest, most dramatic and atmospheric overture, recounts the dark Shakespearean tragedy of man and a kingdom divided by love and politics.
Now in its 27th season celebrating Icons & Rebels, SFSO invites audiences to tantalizing upcoming works by Mozart, Berlioz, Prokofiev and Bruckner.
From sold-out masterworks performances to accompanying today’s musicians such as Natalie Merchant and performing modern musical scores, South Florida’s largest symphonic orchestra is continuing its journey of excellence inspiring audiences of all ages and musical genres. This season’s popular collaborations included performances of ARRIVAL From Sweden: The Music of ABBA and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring the iconic film screened live with audio and musical accompaniment.
Tickets for this Masterworks III program are on sale now beginning at $25. For the February 12 concert, buy tickets online at southfloridasymphony.org; by phone at (954) 462-0222; or in person at The Parker or at Broward Center’s AutoNation Box Office. For the February 15 concert, buy tickets online at southfloridasymphony.org; by phone at (305) 673-3331; or in-person at the New World Center Box Office.
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