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…
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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.
First SASO CD Is Celebration of Tucson Composers
The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra has released its first CD—Celebration!—showcasing the diverse musical range of six Tucson composers.
Playing Beethoven’s Ninth, from the Inside
SASO violinist—and novelist, and mariachi musician—D.R. Ransdell reveals what it was like to struggle through, and ultimately succeed in, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra at her own blog.
Program Notes for Our May, 2014 Concerts
By Tim Secomb Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Festive Overture in 1947 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. First performed in 1954, it is unusual among Shostakovich’s works for its gaiety and lack…
Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra debuts chorus, closes season with a Beethoven first
The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra will debut its SASO Chorus this weekend in a season finale that people will likely still be talking about when the volunteer orchestra picks up next season.
SASO’s Season Finale Features Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Contact Kevin Larkin at manager@sasomusic.org or (520) 308-6226 TUCSON, AZ – Music aficionados take note. There’s a mighty milestone ahead. The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra will present three performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Rodrigo’s…
SASO Plays the World’s Most Popular Guitar Concerto
By Punch Howarth Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra will be a respite between a hectic gallop in the Shostakovich Festive Overture and the overpoweringly dramatic Symphony No. 9 of Beethoven for the…
Beethoven’s Mighty Ninth to be Performed in May
Linus Lerner will conduct the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, SASO Chorus, and soloists in a season-closing presentation of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in d minor, Op. 125, “The Choral.” This work is acknowledged to be the greatest symphony ever composed, and greatly influenced later composers of orchestra music, particularly Brahms and Mahler.
Contest-Winner Concerto
The Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra has assembled another top-notch lineup for its April concert, with selections from Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s the kind of performances SASO has become known for since 1979.
New Soloist Mikhail Korzhev Joins SASO for Liszt’s First Piano Concerto April 5-6
Contact Kevin Larkin at manager@sasomusic.org or (520) 308-6226 TUCSON, AZ – The new soloist for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is Russian-born Mikhail Korzhov, who performs with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra on April 5…
Video: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, second movement, with Edwin E. Soo Kim
It’s been a while since we posted the first movement, so without further delay, here’s the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, featuring Edwin E. Soo Kim, one of our most acclaimed guest soloists, with the…