OAKLAND SYMPHONY BEGINS NEW SEASON
Editors ChoiceOAKLAND SYMPHONY BEGINS NEW SEASON
The Oakland Symphony will open its new season this Friday (October 13) with a musical celebration at The Paramount (2025 Broadway, Oakland).
Acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt performs two concertos, a four-century span from Bach to Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra.“Musicians with his ability are a rare commodity,” says the Chicago Sun-Times.
This concert also marks the Oakland Symphony debut of conductor ShiyeonSung (shown). Hailing from South Korea, she has conducted in Europe, and onthis continent, the Boston Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. “An
impressive Concertgebouw debut,” raved Amsterdam’s de Volkskrant. “(She letthe music) glow softly, then let the orchestra blaze to incandescent volume.”
She leads Valerie Coleman’s Seven O’Clock Shout, an inspiring work that pays tribute to the frontline workers of the pandemic. The concert concludes with Rachmaninoff’s late, luxuriant Symphonic Dances, composed during his final
years in California.
Tickets start at just $25. Slipped Disc readers can enjoy a 25% discount on all ther priced tickets with this discount code: DISC101323.
OAKLAND SYMPHONY
Shiyeon Sung, conductor
Awadagin Pratt, pianist
VALERIE COLEMAN: Seven O’Clock Shout
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Piano Concerto in A, BWV 1055
JESSIE MONTGOMERY: Rounds for Piano & String Orchestra
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances
Their description of the Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninoff as “composed during his final years in California” is a little bit misleading. Biographies of Rachmaninoff (including the 2006 book by by Max Harrison) say that he wrote most of the work in 1940 while staying at a New York estate called “Orchard Point,” by the Long Island Sound.