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2011/2012 Concerts John Larry Granger, Music Director/Conductor

Click here for detailed program notes or see brief descriptions below.

Concert 1 – THE BIG APPLE
Saturday, October 1, 8 pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Sunday, October 2, 2 pm Mello Center, Watsonville

We’ve all heard the story of William Tell shooting the apple off his son’s head to win his freedom. Most of us have also heard the wonderful overture to the Gioacchino Rossini’s opera, Giullaume Tell – better known as the theme to the Lone Ranger. We are pleased to welcome back the first Associate Concertmaster of the Big Apple’s New York Philharmonic to perform Mendelssohn’s inspiring Violin Concerto. Concluding the program will be the Eighth Symphony of Dvorák, who came to the United States to start an American school of composition in… New York City..

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Concert 2 – THREE'S COMPANY
Saturday, November 12, 8 pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Sunday, November 13, 2 pm Mello Center, Watsonville

This special concert features three great masterwork concertos as performed by three of today’s most talented young artists. Performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto will be Santa Cruz’s own virtuosi, Aaron Miller and Van Cliburn finalist, Chetan Tierra. Rounding out the program will be a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Klein Competition Winner, Nikki Chooi.

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Concert 3 – CERTIFIED ORGANIC
Saturday, January 28, 8 pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Sunday, January 29, 2 pm Mello Center, Watsonville

We celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of British composer, Frederick Delius, in a performance of ‘Daybreak’ from his Florida Suite. The concert also features Jonathan Dimmock, a frequent organist for the San Francisco Symphony performing two major works by French composers Francis Poulenc and Camille Saint-Saëns. Poulenc’s Organ Concerto is rich with contemporary harmonies, vivid rhythms and haunting melodies. The ‘Organ Symphony’ of Saint-Saëns is a triumphant work whose themes were featured in the movie “Babe.”

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Concert 4 – THREE B's
Saturday, March 24, 8 pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Sunday, March 25, 2 pm Mello Center, Watsonville

We open the program with Estrella de Soria, a rarely heard overture by the early Romantic Swedish composer, Franz Berwald. Then we proudly welcome the return of Van Cliburn Gold Medalist, Jon Nakamatsu to perform Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. This inventive work’s intimate exchange between piano and orchestra offers a unique glimpse at the composer’s tender and graceful side. The concert concludes with Johannes Brahms’s final majestic Symphony in E minor.

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Concert 5 – POETIC SONGS
Saturday, May 12, 8 pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Sunday, May 13, 2 pm Mello Center, Watsonville

The season concludes with the orchestra’s time-honored collaboration with the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus. Following the brilliant Maskarade: Overture by Danish composer, Carl Nielsen, the chorus and orchestra perform Felix Mendelssohn’s extraordinarily beautiful Psalm 42. The concert concludes with Vaughan Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem,” which features the dramatic and timely poetry of Walt Whitman about the human costs of war and peace.

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Herdison

Joyce Herdison

Mount Hermon

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