The Brevard Philharmonic Board of Directors and Artistic Director and Conductor, Donald Portnoy, announce the orchestra’s 2014-2015 season with a distinguished lineup of guest artists. Patrons can save by purchasing season tickets for the six concerts that take place at the Porter Center for Performing Arts on the grounds of Brevard College. Three, four, and five concert package options are also available as well as single tickets.
Zuill Bailey, among the most sought after cellists today, has been praised for his peerless technique and great passion. Bailey will play Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra on the season opening Russian Treasures concert September 21. The three movements are all expansive, with a wide variety of themes and speeds that demand a cellist of exceptional technique and musicality. The Brevard Philharmonic will also play one of Tchaikovsky’s joyful compositions, Symphony No. 2, “Little Russian,” on the season’s opening concert.
In November, guest artist Adam Golka, is sure to deliver a stunning performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. Golka is the winner of the 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Award and first-prize winner of the 2009 Max I. Allen Classical Fellowship Award of the American Pianists Association. The Scotsman describes Golka as having “a wealth of color and dynamic range, integrating the solo role with organic sensitivity." The orchestra will also present Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 for the November concert.
2014 comes to a festive close with Home for the Holidays, a concert of popular holiday songs and selections from the Nutcracker Suite.
Zeyu Victor Li returns to Brevard to play Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 at the March concert. Back by popular demand, the 18-year-old Chinese violin virtuoso has been praised for his technical mastery and exuberance. The Concerto No. 2 is more conventional than the composer's early bold compositions and begins with a melody related to traditional Russian folk music. About the work, Prokofiev wrote, “The number of places in which I wrote the Concerto shows the kind of nomadic concert-tour life I led then. The main theme of the 1st movement was written in Paris, the first theme of the 2nd movement at Voronezh, the orchestration was finished in Baku and the premiere was given in Madrid."
Also on the March program is Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which secured Elgar's reputation as a composer of International standing. It remains one of the most popular works in the classical repertoire. The “variations” are 14 musical portraits of the composer’s friends and family, and the “enigma” is the larger theme that goes through and over the whole set, but is not played, according to the composer.
The concert season also includes a tribute to Cole Porter titled Anything Goes to brighten the cold Brevard February. Four soloists and chorus will celebrate some of Cole Porter’s greatest hits including “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “All Through the Night,” “I Love Paris,” “Begin the Beguine,” “So in Love,” and “Night and Day.”
The season closes in April of 2015 with the music of America’s greatest composers; George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Duke Ellington. As American as apple pie, Maestro Portnoy and the Brevard Philharmonic offer a delightful slice of American classics.
Concerts take place at the Porter Center for Performing Arts on the grounds of Brevard College at 3:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
