West Valley Symphony Season-Opening Performance Features Classics By Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich

Acclaimed soloist Vladimir Khomyakov, who has performed with orchestras worldwide, joins the West Valley Symphony for its 2021-2022 season-opening performance at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21 at The Vista Center for the Arts, 15660 N. Parkway Place in Surprise.

Now in its 53rd season, the Symphony, under the baton of Music Director and Conductor Maestro Cal Stewart Kellogg, will perform Dmitri Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2 and Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto.

Single adult tickets are on sale at The Vista Center Box Office beginning at $30. Tickets for the 6-concert season also are available.

Khomyakov, 37, has performed as soloist with various orchestras including the Houston Symphony and Dresden Philharmonic and in solo recital and chamber music at venues in, among other countries, the United States, Russia, Canada, Costa Rica, China and Italy.

About the Classical Works

It took Shostakovich just three days in 1954 to write the Festive Overture to commemorate the 37thanniversary of the 1917 October Revolution on a commission by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra.

Prokofiev composed Romeo and Juliet No. 2 in 1935 after repatriation to Soviet Russia following a period abroad. Originally written for the Kirov Ballet, after early productions faced challenges, Prokofiev adapted the music for the concert hall and the substantially revised piece had its Soviet premiere in early 1940.

Tchaikovsky'sPiano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 is particularly well known for a famed sequence of pounding chords with which the soloist launches the first movement. It premiered in Boston, Mass on Oct. 25, 1875 even though it had been written for a Moscow Conservatory colleague of Tchaikovsky who refused to play it unless Tchaikovsky made changes. The composer then offered the piece to German pianist Hans von Bülow, who performed the world premiere during a tour of America.

The season-opening performance will be followed by:

• Happy Holidays, on Dec. 19, featuring the North Valley Chorale under the direction of Music Director Eleanor Johnson.

• A Salute to England, on Jan. 16, featuring soloist Nancy Buck will include William Walton's Orb and Sceptre March and Viola Concerto No. 2 and Edgar Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, "Enigma."

• Friends and Colleaguesfeatures soloist Katherine McLin on Feb. 13. The symphony will perform Die Fledermaus Overture (Johann Strauss), Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 for Violin (Johannes Brahms) and Symphony in G Major, No. 8, Op. 88 (Antonin Dvorak).

• Famous Opera Arias sung by the Phoenician Tenors on March 21. Tenors Guillermo Ontiveros, Johnny Huerta and Robert Erlichman will perform arias by Verdi, Donizette, Leoncavallo and Puccini.

• Remembering Leroy Anderson and Richard Rodgers on April 18. The orchestra will perform Anderson's compositions Belle of the Ball; The Syncopated Clock; The Waltzing Cat; The Typewriter; Fiddle Faddle; Plink, Plank, Plunk; Trumpeter's Lullaby; Bugler's Holiday; and Forgotten Dreams. Richard Rodgers' pieces includeOklahoma, The King and I, Carousel, South Pacific and The Sound of Music.

For more information about the West Valley Symphony, visit https://westvalleysymphony.org.

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