SASO, Linus Lerner and the 2016 Oaxaca Opera Festival are receiving plentiful advance coverage in the Mexican press. If you read Spanish, or if you’re just a monolingual voyeur, follow the links to short pieces…
News
SASO, Lerner heading back to Oaxaca
By Cathalena E. Burch, originally published in the Arizona Daily Star Opera is not native to the culturally rich southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, but a Tucson conductor and his orchestra are among those trying…
2015-16 Season Tickets Now Available
Through May 17, you may purchase early-bird-discount season tickets for SASO’s five 2015-16 concerts at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian for only $80. That’s five concerts for less than the cost of four single tickets! Season ticket…
SASO concert goes from sorrow to surprise
[The] Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra this weekend will host a teen violinist from Phoenix in a concert that also features an internationally known violist from our backyard.
SASO Features Violist Hong-Mei Xiao in Concerts April 10-12
Internationally acclaimed violist Hong-Mei Xiao returns to solo with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in a program that also includes Khachaturian’s Masquerade Suite and the premiere of Michael Kiefer’s Psalm 22.
Desert Vista student 1st violinist to win Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition
By Allison Hurtado, originally published in the Ahwatukee Foothills News Desert Vista High School student Bobae Johnson knows a thing or two about winning a competition, but for her it’s not a sport she’s playing…
Phoenix Violinist Wins Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition
Contact Kevin Larkin at manager@sasomusic.org or (520) 308-6226 Fifteen-year-old violinist Bobae Johnson won the 2015 Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition sponsored by the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra. In addition to the $1,000 cash prize, she…
‘Lesser’ of Beethoven’s Concertos on SASO Program
By Cathalena E. Burch, originally published in the Arizona Daily Star It’s not often you get to hear Beethoven’s Triple Concerto performed live. It’s hard to say why, although some might cite its length —…
SASO presents Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, Dvorak’s Eighth
Contact Kevin Larkin at manager@sasomusic.org or (520) 308-6226 Tucson music lovers are in for a rare treat on Feb. 20, 21 and 22 when the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven’s seldom performed Triple Concerto,…
Music Students: Apply for Youth Concerto Competition
Contact Kevin Larkin at manager@sasomusic.org or (520) 308-6226 Talented students who love to play music are encouraged to apply for the 2015 Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto Competition by Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Competitors vie for…
Edwin E. Soo Kim Appetizer
Following his outstanding 2013 performances with SASO of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (which you can view in individual movements here, here and here), Edwin E. Soo Kim returns to Tucson in February 2015 to participate in…
Italian guest conductor, Polish violinist star in SASO’s international celebration Nov. 8–9
Contact Kevin Larkin at manager@sasomusic.org or (520) 308-6226 The international music celebration of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra this season continues on Nov. 8 and 9 with Gabriele Pezone of Italy as guest conductor and…
Concert Archives: Stoller’s “Open Spaces”
Here’s a front-row video of Bruce Stoller’s Open Spaces Suite, which SASO premiered on April 6 and 7, 2013. Stoller himself served as soloist, playing one of the many yucca shakuhachi flutes he has crafted…
Concert Archives: Creston’s Marimba Concertino
On Feb. 24, 2001, marimba soloist Gifford Howarth—at the time a percussion instructor at Penn State and at Nazareth College, more recently a professor at Bloomsburg University, and all along the nephew of SASO timpanist Harold…
SASO soaring to ‘The Planets’; Shen will be guest
By Cathalena E. Burch, originally published in the Arizona Daily Star The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra is going to the moon and back to open its 2014-15 season this weekend. The ensemble, beefed up to…
Program notes for Oct. 4-5 concerts
By Tim Secomb The French composer Hector Berlioz was very influential in the development of the modern orchestra, particularly through his Treatise on Instrumentation, and also in the development of musical Romanticism. Like many other composers, Berlioz was…
Preview of SASO’s Oct. 4-5 season opener
By Punch Howarth Linus Lerner again conducts the season opening concert by the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, on Oct. 4–5, 2013, featuring Gustav Holst’s The Planets, as well as music by Berlioz and Mozart. Opening…
SASO opens season with “The Planets” and Mozart concerto
Join the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra for a concert featuring Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Holst’s The Planets, performed with projected images of space provided by the Kitt Peak National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
Concert Archives: Cohen’s “Night Music”
On Feb. 24, 2001, then-music director Warren Cohen led the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of his own Night Music (Concerto Grosso No. 2) at Tucson’s Berger Center for the Performing Arts….
Free SASO Concert with Oaxaca Opera Festival Soloists
Contact Consulate of Mexico in Tucson at 882-5595 ext. 112 or 113 or sgalvanduque@sre.gob.mx The Consulate of Mexico in Tucson, in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute of Tucson, the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra (SASO)…
SASO Souvenirs of the Oaxaca Opera Festival
SASO violinist (and mystery novelist) D.R. Ransdell reports on the orchestra’s second annual visit to the Oaxaca Opera Festival, culminating in concerts Aug. 9 and 10, 2014. You can read all about it, and see…
SASO Heads Back to Oaxaca Opera Festival
Members of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra will travel to Oaxaca, Mexico to perform in the second annual Oaxaca Opera Festival on August 9 and 10. The orchestra will be joined by two dozen soloists from Mexico who competed for the opportunity to perform and to participate in the festival, plus a chorus.
Concert Archives: Novák’s “Moravian-Slovak Suite”
On Feb. 18, 2001, then-music director Warren Cohen led the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in a rare performance of Vitezslav Novák’s Moravian-Slovak Suite. Composed in 1903, it’s a sequence of tone pictures: “In the Church,”…
2014–15 Season Tickets on Sale Now
Music is truly the international language. In the 2014–15 season, the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra features music that spans 14 countries with guest artists from around the globe. Season tickets are on sale now—including a new two-concert mini-series in Green Valley.