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The Livermore-Amador Symphony opens it 57th regular season with “Winter Dreams” at the Bankhead Theater at 8:15 p.m. next Saturday (Dec. 7), and earlier that day will present its Family Concert at 3 p.m.
This is the fifth year for the Family Concert, which is free but requires tickets.
“The performance is a fun-filled concert of Hanukkah and Christmas music and Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Carnival of the Animals,'” music director Lara Webber said. “This fun musical suite features the cock-a-doodle-doo of roosters and hens, the hee-haw of donkeys, the shimmering slippery magic of fish, a royal lion, an elegant swan, kangaroos, cuckoos, elephants and tortoises.
“Two talented young pianists, Daniel Mah and Hailing Wang, join the orchestra as soloists,” she continued.
“Narrating the performance with the witty words of Ogden Nash is actor and director Michael Wayne Rice, known to Livermore audiences through his wonderful work with the Livermore Shakespeare Festival. He has delighted thousands of kids performing in school-outreach concerts with the symphony.”
The program will include Valley Dance Theatre members performing selections from their upcoming “Nutcracker.”
The concert lasts about 50 minutes and concludes in the lobby with a chance for children to meet the performers and try out musical instruments.
The evening concert will feature Mozart’s “Three German Dances,” also the “Carnival of the Animals,” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1.
“The music of Mozart puts us in the holiday spirit with his ‘Three German Dances’ that feature charming sleigh bells,” Webber said, noting that much of his music was written for formal balls in Vienna.
“Tchaikovsky struggled so mightily with his first symphony,” she added. “He believed at one point it might kill him, he was so exhausted. The pressure surrounding this milestone was enormous, but we hear none of that struggle in this brilliant music. Infused with Russian folk song, the architecture of the music is clean and clear like the bright sparkle of new snow.”
Webber will provide commentary during the concert in lieu of a prelude talk. The Symphony Guild will host a post-concert reception.
Tickets for the evening symphony are $26-$36; youths, $12. Tickets for both performances are available at lvpac.org; the Bankhead ticket office, 2400 First St., Livermore; or by calling 373-6800.
Editor’s note: Patricia J. Boyle, immediate past president of the California Writers Club Tri-Valley branch, has been writing about the Livermore-Amador Symphony for seven years.
Editor’s note: Patricia J. Boyle, immediate past president of the California Writers Club Tri-Valley branch, has been writing about the Livermore-Amador Symphony for seven years.
