The Rogue Valley Symphony (RVS) is elated to announce its 50th anniversary season. The 2017-2018 season will combine world-renowned soloists, such as pianist Peter Serkin, great masterworks by famous composers and five new symphonic works commissioned and/or co-commissioned by the RVS for the anniversary season.
The Rogue Valley Symphony’s 50th Anniversary Season will open on September 15, 2017 at 7:30pm in Ashland at the Oregon Center for the Performing Arts at Southern Oregon University and have additional performances on September 16 at 7:30pm in Medford at the Craterian Theater and September 17 at 3:00pm at the Performing Arts Center in Grants Pass.
Concerts on opening weekend, September 15, 16, and 17 will feature distinguished American pianist Peter Serkin performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor. Maestro Majkut has paired this Classical concerto with Gustav Mahler’s iconic Fifth Symphony. Masterworks 2 concerts on October 6, 7, and 8, 2017 will feature the world premiere of our first commissioned work of the season, Cantus, by local composer I’lana Cotton. Ms. Cotton, who has written extensively for chamber and choral groups, will be stretching her wings into the orchestral world with the RVS commission. Majkut has paired this new work with Beethoven’s Concerto for violin, cello, and piano (Triple) and Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 (Drum Roll). In another first for the organization, the orchestra will also present the Tempest Trio in a special chamber music concert at the SOU Music Recital Hall on October 3rd.
The Masterworks 3 concert performances will be on November 10, 11, and 12, 2017. Violinist Bella Hristova, a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, will make a return visit to the Rogue Valley Symphony as soloist to play a violin concerto written by her husband David Ludwig and composed for her in celebration of their marriage. The violin concerto was commissioned by a consortium of orchestras including the Rogue Valley Symphony along with The Vermont Symphony (lead commissioner) and the Quad Cities Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Symphony, and the Reno Chamber Orchestra. To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, Maestro Majkut has chosen to close the program with Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, known as the “Reformation.”
The Symphony’s December holiday concerts will be held on December 1, 2, and 3, 2017. This year, Music Director Martin Majkut will present a mostly instrumental program that will include Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Mozart’s Three German Dances, and Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Soprano Laura Portune will be featured in Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate.
For more information and to order subscription tickets, please call 541-708-6400 or visit www.rvsymphony.org.