Berkeley Symphony Performs MASON BATES CELLO CONCERTO, BEETHOVEN'S SYMPHONY NO. 4, 1/26

Berkeley Symphony announced today that Music Director Joana Carneiro has withdrawn from the Berkeley Symphony concert on Thursday, January 26 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall. Carneiro is pregnant and is under doctor's advice not to conduct or travel. The concert will be conducted by Christian Reif. The Orchestra will perform the Bay Area premiere of Mason Bates' Cello Concerto with Joshua Roman, to whom the work is dedicated, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4.

Well-established as a presenter of major contemporary orchestral works, Berkeley Symphonycontinues its steadfast commitment to presenting original and unique programs with new music commissioned by living composers, many of whom have developed an ongoing creative and collaborative relationship with the Symphony. In addition to the December U.S. premiere performance of Sir James MacMillan's Symphony No. 4, and the Bates Cello Concerto, the Orchestra also performs Shostakovich's epic Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar", with bass Denis Sedov and alumni of choruses including the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir Academy, and members of the St. John of San Francisco Russian Orthodox Chorale, led by Marika Kuzma. Since its 1979-80 season, Berkeley Symphony has performed 65 world premieres, 28 U.S. premieres, and 21 West Coast premieres. In recognition of its leadership in commissioning and creating new music, the Orchestra has received the prestigious ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award in 10 of the past 13 seasons. In December, Berkeley Symphony and composer Anna Clyne were awarded a three-year Music Alive grant for a composer residency, one of only five U.S. orchestra-composer pairings selected by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras for the honor. The residency is designed to involve Clyne in a far-reaching, immersive collaboration with Berkeley Symphony, involving the creation of new work, collaboration with other Berkeley arts institutions, music education, community outreach and multidisciplinary activities.

Joshua Roman has earned an international reputation for his wide-ranging repertoire, a commitment to communicating the essence of music in visionary ways, artistic leadership and versatility. As well as being a celebrated performer, he is recognized as an accomplished composer and curator, and was named a TED Senior Fellow in 2015. During the 2016-17 season, Roman will play Bates' Cello Concerto with four different orchestras: the Berkeley, Portland, Spokane, and Memphis Symphonies. Bates dedicated the concerto to the cellist, who gave its "world-class world premiere" (Seattle Times) with the Seattle Symphony in 2014, and has since performed it with orchestras around the U.S., including as part of a residency last spring with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In the second of two performances with the Omaha Symphony, Roman performs Dreamsongs, a cello concerto written for him by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, after a concert featuring Tchaikovsky's Pezzo Capriccioso and Variations on a Rococo Theme.

In recent seasons, Roman premiered Awakening, his own Cello Concerto, with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, and subsequently performed it with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. He made his debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra playing Dvorák's Cello Concerto, gave a solo performance on the TED2015 main stage, and performed a program of chamber works by Lera Auerbach at San Francisco Performances with Auerbach and violinist Philippe Quint. Roman also appeared with the Columbus, Fort Worth, New World, and Seattle Symphonies as well as with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He served as Alumnus-in-Residence at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

German conductor Christian Reif joined the San Francisco Symphony as its Resident Conductor and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the internationally acclaimed San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) in the 2016-17 season. He came to San Francisco from Miami, where he was the Conducting Fellow with the New World Symphonyfor the past two seasons. Christian Reif is currently a member of Germany's prestigious Conductor's Forum (Dirigentenforum).

Highlights of Reif's 2015-16 season included leading the Munich Chamber Opera in performances of Mozart's La finta semplice in Munich's Cuvilliés Theater, performing with the Meininger Hofkapelle and leading the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 with Dawn Upshaw, Sanford Sylvan and TMC Singers. As part of efforts to bridge cultures through music, he led the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in the world premiere of Mehmet C. Yesilçay's Lieder aus der Fremde, which addresses the current European refugee crisis.

With this same orchestra, Reif will make his debut at the international festival Heidelberger Frühling in April 2017, conducting Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Mahler's Lied von der Erde with Michelle DeYoung and Toby Spence. Other debuts this season include the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Canada. In addition to his duties as the SFS Resident Conductor, Reif led the SF Symphony in a concert version of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, and is curating its March Soundbox concerts.

Reif was a Conducting Fellow at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center in the summers of 2015 and 2016. This past summer, he stepped in for Seiji Ozawa, conducting the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland. He has also repeatedly worked as assistant and cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and for Alan Gilbert at the New York Phil Biennial.

His enthusiasm in performing contemporary music has led to many world premieres; among them are Michael Gordon's El Sol Caliente, a city symphony in honor of Miami Beach's centennial, and also concertos for DJ and orchestra, performed at the PULSE events of the New World Symphony, when the concert hall is transformed into a nightclub.

In 2014, Reif completed his Master of Music in Conducting at The Juilliard School under Alan Gilbert, after studying with Dennis Russell Davies at the Mozarteum Salzburg. For his outstanding achievements at The Juilliard School, Christian Reif is the recipient of the Charles Schiff Conducting Award. He won the German Operetta Prize 2015, awarded by the German Music Council, and two Kulturförderpreise, awards given to promising artists of the region who promote cultural advancement in their communities.

Recently named the most-performed composer of his generation, Mason Bates serves as the first composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His music enlivens imaginative narrative forms with novel orchestral writing, the harmonies of jazz and the rhythms of techno, and it has been the first symphonic music to receive widespread acceptance for its unique integration of electronic sounds. Bates has become a visible advocate for bringing new music to new spaces, whether through institutional partnerships such as his residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, or through his club/classical project Mercury Soul, which transforms spaces ranging from commercial clubs to Frank Gehry-designed concert halls into exciting, hybrid musical events drawing over a thousand people.

In addition to performances of Liquid Interface and Garages of the Valley by the National Symphony Orchestra this season, the Kennedy Center premiere a new Mason Bates work celebrating the centennial of John F. Kennedy in May. Scored for mezzo-soprano, orchestra, and electronica, the work juxtaposes the poetry of longtime JFK confidant Robert Frost with excerpts of the President's own words. The San Francisco Symphony's recording Works for Orchestra, comprised of Bates' compositions, was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Orchestra Performance, and his Anthology of Fantastic Zoology was nominated as Best Contemporary Classical Composition. In July 2017, Santa Fe Opera premieres his new opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, in which Bates uses innovative storytelling, an electro-acoustic score, and stunning visual effects.

Tickets for the Berkeley Symphony concert January 26 are priced at $15 to $74 and are available at www.berkeleysymphony.org or by phone at (510) 841-2800, ext. 1.

To post a comment, you must register and login.