The Pasadena Symphony is proud to announce its 16/17 Classics Season with its expanded schedule of seven concert weekends for the 2016-17 Season.
The Singpoli Classics Series season commences on October 8th through April 29th with both 2pm and 8pm performances at Pasadena’s historic Ambassador Auditorium. The season also includes the annually sold out Holiday Candlelight Concert on December 17, 2016 with both 4pm and 7pm performances at All Saints Church. The Pasadena Symphony further cements its position as the area’s premiere destination for live symphonic music with an eye for long term stability in its artistic leaders by renewing the contracts of both Music Director David Lockington and Principal Guest Conductor Nicholas McGegan through 2019.
The 2016-17 season kicks off on October 8, 2016 with Music Director David Lockington and acclaimed BBC New Generation Artist Elena Urioste performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Composer Andrew Norman will also be in attendance for opening night, as the orchestra will perform his piece inspired by Alexander Calder’s monumental sculpture, The Great Swiftness. The Pasadena Symphony continues its tradition of showcasing the stars of tomorrow here today with Ray Ushikubo performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on November 5. Winner of the first-ever Steinway Concerto Competition at the Colburn Academy Piano Festival in 2015, Ushikubo has been stunning audiences since the age of ten when he premiered at Los Angeles’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Known as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (London Independent), Nicholas McGegan will jump start the new year as only he can on January 21, 2017 with Baroque Connections: Bach and Handel with violinist William Hagen and Soprano Sherezade Panthaki. Other season highlights include Natasha Paremski performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 on February 18 and Mozart & Mendelssohn on March 18 with Rachel Barton Pine, whom the Washington Post calls “an exciting, boundary-defying performer … [with] a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon.” Lockington will close out the season on April 29 with the soul-stirring Beethoven 9, accompanied by a full chorus with both the Donald Brinegar Singers and the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus taking the stage.
“The orchestra obviously loves playing for him and that translates fully into what the audience hears each concert.” — Los Angeles News Group
The Pasadena Symphony provides a quintessential experience specially designed for the music lover, the social butterfly or a date night out, and the inner epicurean in us all. Audiences can enjoy a drink or a bite in the lively Sierra Auto Symphony Lounge, yet another addition to the care-free and elegant concert experience the Pasadena Symphony offers. A posh setting at Ambassador Auditorium’s beautiful outdoor plaza, the lounge offers uniquely prepared menus from Claud &Co for both lunch and dinner, a full bar and fine wines by Michero Family Wines, plus music before the concert and during intermission.
All Symphony Classics concerts take place at Ambassador Auditorium, 131 S. St. John Avenue, Pasadena. Six-concert subscription packages start at $186, regular individually priced tickets start at $35 and may be purchased online at www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org or by calling (626) 793-7172.
2016-17 Singpoli Symphony Classics Series Calendar
October 8, 2016
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
David Lockington, conductor
Elena Urioste, violin
Norman – The Great Swiftness
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto
Brahms – Symphony No. 4
November 5, 2016
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
David Lockington, conductor
Ray Ushikubo, piano
Copland – Appalachian Spring Suite
Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue
Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade
December 17, 2016
Holiday Candlelight at All Saint’s Church
Grant Cooper, conductor
Valarie Pettiford, vocalist
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus
The Donald Brinegar Singers
L.A. Bronze Handbell Ensemble
January 21, 2017
Baroque Connections: Bach & Handel
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano
William Hagen, violin
Bach – Suite No. 1
Handel – Let the Bright Seraphim
Handel – Tornami a vagheggiar
Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Handel – Prophetic raptures swell my breast
Handel – Lascia ch’io pianga
Bach – Violin Concerto No.1
Handel – Water Music Suite No. 2
February 18, 2017
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
David Lockington, conductor
Natasha Paremski, piano
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique”
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 2
March 18, 2017
Mozart & Mendelsssohn
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Schubert – Overture In the Italian Style
Mozart – Violin Concerto No. 5 “Turkish”
Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”
April 29, 2017
Beethoven 9
David Lockington, conductor
The Donald Brinegar Singers
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus
Vaughan Williams – Serenade to Music
Holst – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda
Beethoven – Symphony No. 9
About the Pasadena Symphony Association
Recent Acclaim for the Pasadena Symphony and POPS:
“The Pasadena Symphony signals a new direction…teeming with vitality…dripping with opulent, sexy emotion.” Los Angeles Times.
“…full of pulsating energy from first note to last… the strings were lushly resonant, the wind principals were at the top of their games, and the brass rang out with gleaming vigor.” –Pasadena Star News.
Formed in 1928, the Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Hollywood’s most talented, sought after musicians. With extensive credits in the film, television, recording and orchestral industry, the artists of Pasadena Symphony and POPS are the most heard in the world.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS performs in two of the most extraordinary venues in the United States: Ambassador Auditorium, known as the Carnegie Hall of the West, and the luxuriant Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden. Internationally recognized, Grammy-nominated conductor, David Lockington, serves as the Pasadena Symphony Association’s Music Director, with performance-practice specialist Nicholas McGegan serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The multi-platinum-selling, two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated entertainer dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” Michael Feinstein, is the Principal Pops Conductor, who succeeded Marvin Hamlisch in the newly created Marvin Hamlisch Chair.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served the youth of the region for over five decades through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO) comprised of five performing ensembles, with over 250 gifted 4th-12th grade students from more than 50 schools all over the Southern California region. The PYSO Symphony often performs on the popular television show GLEE.
The PSA provides people from all walks of life with powerful access points to the world of symphonic music.
