New Century Chamber Orchestra with Stuart Canin April 3, 2008

The Grammy-nominated New Century Chamber Orchestra is pleased to announce the next program in its 2007-08 season. The program, with performances in San Rafael, Berkeley, Palo Alto, and San Francisco, features a 17-member conductorless string orchestra with founding Music Director and guest concertmaster Stuart Canin.

Stuart Canin, founding Music Director and concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, returns to lead the orchestra in a thrilling evening of NCCO specialties. Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony for Strings was featured on the Grammy nominated NCCO recording, Written with the Heart’s Blood. This dark and terrifying piece is followed by Mendelssohn’s delightful Octet for Strings, which he composed at the young age of 16.

Mr. Canin, currently the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera, has been charming audiences for over half a century. At the end of World War II, he was selected to perform for President Truman, Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, and other world leaders at Potsdam. He has been recorded on numerous films, including Forrest Gump, Schindler’s List, and Titanic. Mr. Canin is the former concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera, first prize winner of the Paganini International Violin Competition, and winner of the Handel Medal, New York City’s highest cultural award.

PROGRAM:

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219
Stuart Canin, violin

Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony for Strings, Op. 110a

Mendelssohn: Octet for Strings, Op. 20

WHEN & WHERE:

April 3-6, 2008
Stuart Canin, NCCO Founding Music Director, guest concertmaster
Apr. 3 at 8pm, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Avenue, Berkeley
Apr. 4 at 8pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Avenue, Palo Alto
Apr. 5 at 8pm, Florence Gould Theater, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
Apr. 6 at 5pm, Osher Marin JCC, 200 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael

TICKETS:

Individual tickets are on sale now at www.ncco.org and 415.357.1111 or through City Box at www.cityboxoffice.com and 415.392.4400. Single ticket prices for the orchestra series are $42/$28 (a small service charge applies for single tickets). Half-price tickets are available for students. For more information, call the NCCO at 415.357.1111 or visit the website at www.ncco.org

The New Century Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1992, looks for fresh, exciting new ways to present classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area by combining performances of extraordinary quality with innovative programming. The music director or guest concertmaster chooses the programs and guides the artistic vision, but the seventeen members of the orchestra perform without a conductor. Musical decisions are made collaboratively, resulting in an enhanced level of commitment on the part of the musicians to concerts of remarkable precision, passion and power.

As part of its dedication to the future of music and to the community, the NCCO provides violin lessons to underserved students in Marin City and San Rafael’s Canal District, as well as intimate classroom performances by string quartets to students in Bay Area elementary schools.

The orchestra has released four compact discs, one of which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997.

About Stuart Canin

Stuart Canin, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1980, and concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera from 1970 to 1972, was born in New York City where he studied the violin with famed pedagogue Ivan Galamian. In 1959, he surpassed 25 other violinists to capture first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy. One year later he was honored by his native city with its highest cultural award, the Handel Medal, in recognition of his musical achievements.

Mr. Canin has served as concertmaster of the Casals Festival Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Mostly Mozart Summer Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City, and from 1995 to 1998 he was guest concertmaster of the Tokyo-based New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa. He has also appeared as soloist with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Josef Krips, Neville Marriner, David Zinman, Zdeněk Macal, Kent Nagano, and Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Canin has recorded an album of the music of Swiss composer Frank Martin for New Albion Records. The album contains the Violin Concerto, the Maria Triptychon for violin, soprano, and orchestra, and the Etudes for String Orchestra. The Berkeley Symphony is the featured orchestra for the violin concerto and the Maria Tryptychon, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra performs the Etudes. For seven years, Mr. Canin, one of the founders of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, led the conductorless orchestra as Music Director and Concertmaster. During his tenure, the orchestra made recordings of music by Shostakovich, Ginastera, and Alberto Williams. The Shostakovich was nominated for a Grammy award in 1997. In 2001, Mr. Canin was appointed concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, a position he still holds.

HOMEPAGE
http://www.ncco.org

Official Website: http://www.ncco.org