A Global Celebration January 23, 2009

Oakland East Bay Symphony (OEBS) conductor, Maestro Michael Morgan, today announced additional performers in Nolan Gasser's work, World Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, making its premiere in the OEBS January concert, A Global Celebration. Jiebing Chen, erhu; Aruna Narayan Kalle, sarangi; and Bassam Saba, oud, join previously announced cellist Maya Beiser. This commission and Beiser's appearance are sponsored by Bell Investment Advisors, Inc. Also featured on the program are Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 3.

The Global Celebration concert will be held on Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway. The program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street, to benefit OEBS' education programs.

Gasser's new composition is a three-movement work that incorporates elements of world music. He is a critically acclaimed composer, pianist, conductor and arranger, as well as published musicologist. Gasser is the composer of musical works, ranging in style from classical to jazz to popular, and music for the stage. His four-part symphonic oratorio, American Festivals, was recently premiered in its entirety to great critical acclaim and popular success at the 2008 Festival Del Sole, Napa Valley, Calif. His GLAST Prelude, for brass quintet, was composed in celebration of NASA's GLAST space telescope and recorded by the American Brass Quintet. He received his Ph.D. in Musicology in 2001 from Stanford University, where he has been an Adjunct Professor in Medieval and Renaissance Music History.

$20-$65.

Official Website: http://www.oebs.org