PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Sarah O’Halloran For Immediate Release: [email protected] 08-27-2016
Capital City Symphony presents our 49th season of concerts in 2016/2017. As usual, we will give four main season concerts, including our ever-popular Family Concert. This year’s programs include everything from symphonic poems to song cycles and chamber works to concertos. Our special guests include mezzo soprano Magdalena Wór, soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot, and pianist Lynne Bai.
Dates: October 16th 2016, November 20th 2016, March 12th 2017, May 7th 2017. Venue: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002. Box office: www.atlasarts.org or 202-399-7993. Ticket prices: Adults $25, Students $15, Kids aged 16 or under FREE for main season concerts. Press images: http://bit.ly/capsymphimages
About Capital City Symphony: Capital City Symphony is a community orchestra based at Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street. We make orchestral music enticing and approachable by offering fun, affordable, inclusive concerts. We present our creative programs in a relaxed atmosphere, while providing performance opportunities for accomplished amateur and professional musicians. Capital City Symphony is led by our artistic director and conductor, Victoria Gau. Find out more at www.capitalcitysymphony.org/symphony
Main season concerts:
Event name: Family Concert: Ghoulishly Good Music Date: October 16th 2016 Times: 3 pm and 5 pm Address: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street N.E., Washington, DC 20002 Tickets: http://www.atlasarts.org/event/capital-city-symphony-family-concert- ghoulishly-good-music/ Ticket price: Adults - $25, Students - $15, Kids 16 and under - FREE Description: Capital City Symphony’s Family Concerts are always fun, interactive and educational. This year’s program is inspired by the spookiness and fantasy of Halloween, so audience members are invited to come in costume to join in the fun! The program features the ghosts and ghouls of Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre and Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and the fairy tale world of Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Conducted by Victoria Gau. Instrument Petting Zoo at 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm. On the program, selections from: Camille Saint-Saens, Danse Macabre, Op. 40; Modest Mussorgsky, Night on Bald Mountain; Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird.
Event name: A Night in Paris Date: November 20th 2016 Time: 5 pm Address: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street N.E., Washington, DC 20002 Tickets: http://www.atlasarts.org/event/capital-city-symphony-a-night-in-paris/ Ticket price: Adults - $25, Students - $15, Kids 16 and under - FREE Description: Join Capital City Symphony for an intimate chamber orchestra performance celebrating the beauty of French music. The program features Fauré’s delightfully delicate Pavane, as well as Ravel’s stunning orchestral arrangements of Debussy’s Sarabande. Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wòr will appear as guest soloist for Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, a song cycle that follows the course of love: from youthful innocence, to loss and finally renewal. The concert takes a turn towards the surreal with Milhaud’s Le boeuf sur le toit, which portrays a motley crew of characters who frequent a Brazilian bar. Conducted by Victoria Gau. On the program: Gabriel Fauré, Pavane, Op. 50; Hector Berlioz, Les Nuits d’Été, Op. 7; Claude Debussy, Sarabande, arr. Maurice Ravel; Darius Milhaud, Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58.
Event Name: Great Masters, Young Stars Date: March 12th 2017 Time: 5 pm Address: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street N.E., Washington, DC 20002 Tickets: http://www.atlasarts.org/event/capital-city-symphony-great-masters-young- stars-2017/ Ticket price: Adults - $25, Students - $15, Kids 16 and under - FREE Description: Capital City Symphony continues its tradition of presenting outstanding young classical solo artists in this year’s edition of Great Masters, Young Stars. Lynne Bai, 2016 winner of the Ylda Novik Memorial Concerto Competition for Pianists, will appear as guest soloist for Edvard Grieg’s one and only piano concerto. This beautifully orchestrated piece is full of dramatic contrasts. The program also features two water-inspired works: Smetana’s symphonic poem The Moldau and Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes. Conducted by Victoria Gau. On the program: Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16; Bedřich Smetana, The Moldau; Benjamin Britten, Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33a.
Event Name: Times and Places Date: May 7th 2017 Time: 5 pm Address: Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street N.E., Washington, DC 20002 Tickets: http://www.atlasarts.org/event/capital-city-symphony-times-and-places/ Ticket price: Adults - $25, Students - $15, Kids 16 and under - FREE Description: Capital City Symphony’s final main season concert of 2016/17 reflects on the themes of time and place. Soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot joins the orchestra for Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. As the name suggests, these songs were among the last the composer wrote. Each one is named for a specific time period; they are infused with the presence of death, but emanate a sense of calm and acceptance, a life complete. Things take a cheery turn in Libby Larsen’s Deep Summer, which reflects the phenomenal blaze of color that enlivens the plains landscape. This celebration of nature’s abundance is a joyful depiction of peace and awe by one of America’s finest living composers. The program concludes with Respighi’s evocative Pines of Rome, a tone poem that takes us on a tour of the Eternal City. Conducted by Victoria Gau.
Find out more about our concerts at www.capitalcitysymphony.org/events
Biographies
Victoria Gau, Capital City Symphony’s Artistic Director and Conductor Lauded by critics for her “strong sense of style and drama” (Washington Post) and her “enthusiastic and perceptive conducting”, conductor Victoria Gau brings a wide range of musical experience and expertise to the CCS, which she has led since 1997. She is also Associate Conductor and Director of Education for the National Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the Takoma Ensemble.
Maestra Gau is well-known in the Washington DC area for her work as Artistic Director and Music Director/Conductor of the Other Opera Company in Bethesda, Maryland, which she co-founded in 1992. She has also served as music director for such Washington area companies as The Washington Savoyards, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Annapolis Opera Musicales, the Eldbrook Opera Ensemble, and the IN-Series. Guest conducting includes the Alexandria (VA) Symphony, the Akron (OH) Symphony, the Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra, and she has been a guest conductor for the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-Along. She is the former Conductor and Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra in Richmond, VA.
Known as a strong advocate for American composers and for fostering ongoing expression in music, Ms. Gau has conducted premieres of works by Jorge Martin, Charlie Barnett, Scott Pender, and Nebal Meysaud. This season she will conduct world premieres of works by Alistair Coleman and Kim and Kathryn Kluge, and the local premiere of a work by Joel Friedman.
Ms. Gau is in demand around the region as a conductor and string educator at youth orchestra festivals and workshops. She conducts the National Philharmonic Summer String Institute Middle School Orchestra annually and is the former conductor of the Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, an elite group of string players from the DC Youth Orchestra Program. She has conducted youth orchestras in Virginia, Ohio, and New York. Upcoming engagements include the Vermont (2017) and Maryland (2018) All-State Orchestra festivals.
Ms. Gau has served on the opera faculty at George Mason University, and worked with vocalists privately and in the Crittenden Opera Studio. She has toured with Cleveland Opera, performing throughout northern Ohio, as well as Odyssey Opera Theatre and the Baltimore Opera Company, performing educational outreach in schools throughout the state of Maryland. Ms. Gau holds degrees in Viola Performance and Conducting from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she won the Phi Kappa Lambda Prize for Musicianship.
Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano Guest soloist, November 20, A Night in Paris Polish born mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wór is a winner, finalist and recipient of many prestigious national and international competitions and awards, such as the Marcello Giordani and Moniuszko International Vocal Competitions, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Marcella Kochanska Sembrich Vocal Competition, among others.
Ms. Wór is an alumna of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Programs. Over the last several seasons Ms. Wór has worked with The Metropolitan Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic in Washington, DC, the Washington National Opera, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltic Opera, Washington Concert Opera, Atlanta Opera, Virginia Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and New Trinity Baroque, among others. Her opera roles include those of Carmen, Suzuki, Cherubino, Maddalena, Tisbe, Enrichetta, Orfeo, and Rosina, among others. Magdalena’s orchestral works include Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Magnificat, Beach’s Mass in Eb Major, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, and Bach’s Johannes-Passion.
Magdalena is often praised by music critics and fans alike for the rich color of her voice, vocal flexibility- which allows her to sing low and high mezzo repertoire, from Baroque through 21st century- and for her complete devotion to both the music and the text at hand.
Lynne Bai, Guest soloist, March 12, Great Masters, Young Stars Lynne Bai is 16 years old and a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. She began studying piano when she was 6, and is currently studying with Dr. Marjorie Lee. She received first prize in the biennial 2016 Ylda Novik Concerto Competition, and was also prizewinner of the Virginia Music Teacher’s Association District Auditions, Maryland State Music Teacher’s Association Concerto Competition, American Protege International Competition, and the Woodbridge Kiki Thomaidis Scholarship. In 2014, she had the opportunity to perform the third movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K449 in E-flat major with the Washington Conservatory Orchestra. She has performed in Carnegie Hall twice as well as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
Jennifer Casey Cabot, Soprano Guest soloist, May 7, Times and Places In a stellar career which grows in magnitude with every role, soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot continues to perform extensively in opera and concert. Her roles include many of the heroines of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and many concert and recital performances. In the 2014-15 Season she sang concerts with the Russian Chamber Art Society of Washington DC both in DC and in St. Petersburg, Russia. Recently she sang the soprano solo in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Bay Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. In the 2011-12 Season she sang as a soloist in Messiah with the National Philharmonic, Stan Engebretson conducting. She also performed as Rosina with Opera Lafayette, in a semi-staged production of Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Her recent success’s include singing Giulietta in Casanova’s Homecoming by Dominick Argento, with Minnesota Opera; appearing as soloist in Messiah with the Nashville Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Oberlin Conservatory of Music;returning to the Metropolitan Opera roster, and to San Diego Opera as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes;her debut with Minnesota Opera as Konstanze in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, and singing soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, Ms. Cabot was a resident soloist at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatstheater Braunschweig. She returned to Germany for a concert of arias and duets with Placido Domingo, the success of which led to a gala concert with Mr. Domingo in Japan. A New York native, Jennifer Casey Cabot holds both Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Oberlin College, as well as a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music. She studied voice with Richard Miller and Doris Yarick-Cross.