The wonderful musicians of Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and I are thrilled to bring you BSO’s 47th season. You don’t want to miss any of the exciting and wonderful performances that we have in store for you.
I am extremely excited to start my second year as music director for this wonderful organization. I cannot thank our patrons enough for their kind and immense support. This support is our inspiration for bringing meaningful and beautiful performances into this wonderful community. Bainbridge Island is a special place for the arts, and to celebrate that we’ll launch the season and this program with “Jubilee” from “Symphonic Sketches” by the American composer George Chadwick.
This piece illustrates two contrasting emotions — one is exuberant and festive, and the other is contemplative. The music is so electrifying that simply thinking about performing the piece for you fills my heart with great joy. Horatio Parker, another wonderful American composer, eloquently described the piece with a wonderful sense of American pride: “the high and volatile spirits of the music, the sheer rough and tumble of it at its fullest moments… the music shouts because it cannot help it, and each as only Americans would shout and sing.”
As an artist, one of the most fulfilling experiences for me is the privilege of collaborating with great artistic minds, and let me tell you —we are in for a singular treat with this concert.
Violinist Maria Larionoff comes to Bainbridge Island to deliver her spellbinding performance of the ethereal and dramatic violin concerto – Distant Light by the Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks. This piece, while being meditative and melancholic in concept, portrays a sense of intensity and turbulence that I find to be most unique.
Distant Light, as Vasks described in his violin concerto is also about “the glittering stars millions of miles away.” But sometimes these “Distant Lights” are none other than neighboring planets to our wonderful home, the Earth.
To conclude our concert we will perform four movements from the fantastic suite “The Planets” by Gustav Holst.
This entire program is one that I hope you will enjoy in a spirited and physical way — by enjoying it from “the edge of your seats” and by engaging all of the strong emotions that this program has to offer.
Nothing would delight me more than to see you at each of this season’s upcoming concerts. Please don’t be shy! Stop by at the end of the November concert to say “hello” to me and to my fellow musicians.
Mario Alejandro Torres is music director and conductor of the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra.
‘Distant Light’
Saturday, Nov. 9 and Sunday, Nov. 10
Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra launches BPA’s 2019 – 2020 symphonic season in grand fashion with music director and conductor Mario Alejandro Torres and a program that’s “out of this world.” To celebrate the new season, BSO will start the evening with George Chadwick’s buoyant Jubilee from “Symphonic Sketches.” Then the acclaimed violinist and former concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, Maria Larionoff, will make a guest appearance by performing one of the most important violin concertos of the 20th century – “Distant Light” by Pēteris Vasks. In an exciting conclusion to the evening, BSO will perform selections from Gustav Holst’s powerful and haunting “The Planets.”
Media sponsors: Classical KING FM 98.1 and KCTS 9–Public Television
Community sponsors: Carly’s Rolling Bay Café and Wicklund Dental.
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10 (pre-concert chat Sunday at 2:15 p.m.)
Tickets: $21 for adults, and $18 for seniors, students, military, and teachers; each youth receives free admission when accompanied by a paying adult. Get tickets at 206-42-8569 or www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.
