Garland Symphony Orchestra - Season of Love February 18, 2011

The Garland Symphony Orchestra continues with its 2010-2011 Season, “A Symphony for All Seasons” in the Linda Brownlee Auditorium at the Granville Arts Center. The GSO presents “Season of Love” at 8:00 pm on February 18, 2011.

Join the Garland Symphony Orchestra as we move through the season with the classics! On February 18, the GSO will be performing Goldmark’s In Spring (Im Frühling), Op. 36, Charles Ives’ Washington’s Birthday from New England Holidays, Sibelius’ Spring Song, Johann Strauss II’s Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring), and the US premiere of Kenneth Fuchs’ Divinum Mysterium (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra) with soloist Paul Silverthorne, Principal Viola for the London Symphony.

This concert features the U.S. premiere of Fuchs' viola concerto "Divinum Mysterium". This piece is well-crafted, imaginative, concise, and the most complete work of his that audiences have heard to date.
Meditative in spots, hauntingly beautiful in others, restlessly energetic in still others, the work builds over its 16-minute time frame to an atmospheric climax. As the work opens up and breathes at that point, the overall effect is one of journeying through a deeply spiritual experience into a place of joy and peace.
It will be performed by the musician for whom it was written: Paul Silverthorne, principal violist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Silverthorne's performance of the work, which he had a significant role in helping craft, is nothing short of spectacular. His musicianship is extraordinary and his interpretation of the viola's role in this concerto is quite remarkable.

Paul Silverthorne is one of the UK's foremost viola players. He holds the principal positions in both the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta and appears regularly as a soloist with these and other major orchestras around the world.
Throughout his career he has worked closely with some of the leading composers of our time, this relationship inspiring many of them to write for him, enlarging a repertoire that already encompasses all the major viola works as well as his own transcriptions and lesser known pieces from all periods.
He has recorded a wide range of repertoire for EMI, Black Box, Naxos, Chandos, Koch International Classics, Meridian, and others to much critical acclaim.
He is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and plays a viola made by the Brothers Amati in 1620 which is loaned to him from their collection.
The Garland Symphony Orchestra will also feature guest conductor Geoffrey Simon for this performance. Australian conductor Geoffrey Simon is resident in London and has appeared there with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra.
Internationally, he has appeared with the Adelaide, Atlanta, Bournemouth, City of Birmingham, Fort Worth, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Queensland, Sapporo, Shanghai, St Louis, Sydney, Tasmanian, Vermont and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, the Israel, Moscow, Munich and New Japan Philharmonic Orchestras, the American Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and the Australian Opera.
His music directorships have included the Albany Symphony Orchestra (New York), the Australian Sinfonia (London), the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), the Orquestra Simfònica de Balears “Ciutat de Palma” (Majorca) and the Sacramento Symphony (California). With the Sacramento Symphony he created the World View series of concerts, attracting audiences from some twenty non-European cultures.
Geoffrey Simon was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevich, and a major prize-winner at the first John Player International Conductors’ Award. He has made forty five recordings for a number of labels, combining discoveries with familiar works by Tchaikovsky, Respighi, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Smetana, Bloch, Grainger, Debussy, Ravel, Saint-Saëns and Les Six. Amongst the contemporary composers he has recorded are Barry Conyngham, John Downey, Paul Patterson and Zhou Long.
For his own label, Cala Records, Geoffrey Simon has brought together large ensembles of single instruments—violins, violas, cellos, double basses, horns, trumpets, trombones and harps—drawn from London’s leading solo, orchestral and chamber musicians. Known as The London Sound Series, the recordings have attracted interest amongst instrumentalists worldwide, and The London Cello Sound has performed live for H.M. The Queen and H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh.
The Garland Symphony Orchestra credits its Music Director, Robert Carter Austin for its continued outstanding and diverse orchestral programming. Maestro Austin’s background encompasses over 30 years of professional music experience and includes degrees from MIT, Cambridge University, and Stanford University. Maestro Austin’s musical experience includes conducting performances in countries including: Korea, Ukraine, Canada, Italy, Spain, China, France, Germany, Mexico, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Colombia, Philippines, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and the United States.

Official Website: http://www.garlandsymphony.org/events/