New Century Chamber Orchestra with Rachel Barton Pine June 8, 2008

The Grammy-nominated New Century Chamber Orchestra is pleased to announce the next program in its 2007-08 season. The program, with performances in San Rafael, Berkeley, Palo Alto, and San Francisco, features a 17-member conductorless string orchestra with founding Music Director and guest concertmaster Rachel Barton Pine.

Chicago native Rachel Barton Pine has inspired audiences worldwide with her precision and intensity on the violin. In addition to her many recordings and appearances as a soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Pine serves as president of the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation, an organization that provides assistance to young musicians and encourages awareness and appreciation of classical music.

Ms. Pine’s fascinating program begins with a work by Saint-Georges, a West Indian composer and fencer who commissioned Hadyn’s six Paris symphonies. Fast forward into the 20th century with Lyric Suite by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker, a gorgeous piece that is reminiscent of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, followed by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No. 2, a work flavored with jazz and Romantic elements. Perkinson’s many credits include serving as music director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and co-founding New York’s Symphony of the New World. The evening concludes with the richly Romantic and bittersweet String Sextet No. 1 by Brahms.

PROGRAM:

Saint-Georges Violin Concerto in A Major
George Walker Lyric Suite
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson Sinfonietta No. 2, Generations
Brahms Sextet in B-flat major, Op. 18

WHEN & WHERE:

June 5-10, 2008
Rachel Barton Pine, guest concertmaster
Jun. 5 at 8pm, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Avenue, Berkeley
Jun. 6 at 8pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Avenue, Palo Alto
Jun. 8 at 5pm, Osher Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael
Jun. 10 at 8pm, Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco

TICKETS:

Individual tickets are on sale now at www.ncco.org and 415.357.1111 or through City Box at www.cityboxoffice.com and 415.392.4400. Single ticket prices for the orchestra series are $42/$28 (a small service charge applies for single tickets). Half-price tickets are available for students. For more information, call the NCCO at 415.357.1111 or visit the website at www.ncco.org

The New Century Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1992, looks for fresh, exciting new ways to present classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area by combining performances of extraordinary quality with innovative programming. The music director or guest concertmaster chooses the programs and guides the artistic vision, but the seventeen members of the orchestra perform without a conductor. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, resulting in an enhanced level of commitment on the part of the musicians to concerts of remarkable precision, passion and power.

As part of its dedication to the future of music and to the community, the NCCO provides violin lessons to underserved students in Marin City and San Rafael’s Canal District, as well as intimate classroom performances by string quartets to students in Bay Area elementary schools.

The orchestra has released four compact discs, one of which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997.

HOMEPAGE:
http://www.ncco.org

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