Sunday, Oct. 16 at 3 p.m.: The Adventures of Peter and the Wolf, conducted by Gerard Schwarz and narrated by Jon Secada
Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series at the Eissey Campus Theater on the Palm Beach State College campus at 11051 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410. Tickets go on sale August 1 and are $20 with a $10 student and educator ticket.
Sunday, November 6 at 3 p.m.: Sarah Chang, violin and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $25-$95.
Thursday, December 1 at 8 p.m.: Garrick Ohlsson, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $25-$95.
Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.: – Handel’s Messiah Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Rosarian Academy, 807 N Flagler Drive. West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $50.
Monday, January 30 at 8 p.m. Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $25-$95.
Tuesday, March 14 at 8 p.m. Misha Dichter, piano and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $25-$95.
Sunday, April 16 at 8 p.m. Joshua Bell, violin, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $25-$95.
Monday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. Maria João Pires, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Masterworks Series at Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Tickets go on sale October 3 and are $25-$95.
Concert Programs and Briefs
Internationally recognized for his moving performances, innovative programming and extensive catalogue of recordings, Maestro Gerard Schwarz is a leader both in the southeast region and globally. Locally, he is also the Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra and the Distinguished Professor of Music, Conducting and Orchestral Studies at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. Nationally, he is the Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival and Mozart Orchestra of New York as well as Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. A prolific recording artist with 14 GRAMMY® nominations, he recently released a recording of Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 “The Great” with the New York Chamber Symphony, and his extensive catalogue of more than 350 recordings on 11 labels includes The Gerard Schwarz Collection, a 30-CD box set. In his nearly five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Maestro Schwarz has received hundreds of honors and accolades including nine Emmy® Awards, eight ASCAP Awards and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America and has received numerous honorary doctorates. His book, “Behind the Baton,” was released by Amadeus Press in March 2017.
Sunday, Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. The Adventures of Peter and the Wolf
Palm Beach Symphony, Maestro Gerard Schwarz and narrator Jon Secada embark upon a newly crafted reimagining of Sergei Prokofiev’s musical masterpiece Peter and the Wolf. Peter, his grandfather, the bird, the duck, the cat and, of course, the wolf all play instruments and unite, despite their differences, to create an orchestra for their community. Beyond the pond and the meadow, under the twinkling lights of the town’s great wishing tree, the animals and characters come together to play a magical performance of Prokofiev’s triumphal march, delighting the crowd and surprising each other with new and lasting friendships. This concert that is presented as part of the Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series.
With a career spanning more than two decades, two GRAMMY Awards, 20 million albums sold and starring roles on Broadway, Secada has released numerous hits in English and Spanish to become one of the first bilingual artists to have international crossover success. Secada’s career skyrocketed in 1991 with the release of his self-titled debut album, which sold more than six million copies worldwide, was certified triple platinum in the U.S. and reached No.15 on Billboard’s Pop album chart. The Spanish-language version of the album, Otro Dia Mas Sin Verte, went on to become the Number One Latin album of 1992 and earned Secada his first GRAMMY for “Best Latin Pop Album.” Three more top 20 Billboard hits would eventually come from that album including Angel, I’m Free, and Do You Believe In Us. His third album, Amor, garnered his second GRAMMY for “Best Latin Pop Performance.” Beyond his own hits, Secada is widely recognized for his producing and songwriting skills including co-writing Coming Out of the Dark for Gloria Estefan and penning She’s All I Ever Had for Ricky Martin.
Sunday, November 6 at 3 p.m. Sarah Chang, violin; Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Program:
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26
Diamond: Rounds for String Orchestra (Palm Beach Symphony Premiere)
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 (Palm Beach Symphony Premiere)
One of the foremost violinists of our time, Sarah Chang, joins Maestro Gerard Schwarz to open the season performing the virtuoso passages and rich melodies of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26. In reviewing her EMI Classics recording of Brahms and Bruch violin concertos with Kurt Masur and the Dresdner Philharmonie, Gramophone magazine reported, “To listen to Sarah Chang is to be bathed in the sheer beauty of her sound. It can yield some sublime moments: the way the violin line emerges out of the orchestra in the first movement of the Bruch, or the sheer finesse of every phrase in both works, virtuosity worn lightly but unmistakable none the less.” Palm Beach Symphony continues the dazzling season opener by adding two works to its repertoire as it delivers the exuberant Rounds for String Orchestra by David Diamond that cheered war-weary audiences in WWII and became his most popular work before closing the concert with the lush harmonies and melodies of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73.
Chang has performed with the most esteemed orchestras, conductors and accompanists in an international career spanning more than two decades. Highlights from recent and upcoming seasons include performances with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, San Diego Symphony and New Jersey Symphony. Her European engagements have taken her to Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and her engagements in Asia have brought her to audiences in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. In 2011, Chang was named an official Artistic Ambassador by the United States Department of State, and her numerous honors include receiving the Harvard University Leadership Award, Yale University dedicating a chair in Sprague Hall in her name, being the youngest person ever to receive the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award and the Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize in Siena, Italy.
Thursday, December 1 at 8 p.m. Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Program:
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 “Emperor”
Sibelius: Night Ride and Sunrise, Op. 55 (Palm Beach Symphony Premiere)
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 “Organ Symphony” (Palm Beach Symphony Premiere)
Hailed by The Washington Post as “one of the great American pianists,” Garrick Ohlsson joins Maestro Gerard Schwarz and the Palm Beach Symphony to perform Beethoven’s last piano concerto, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73, known as “Emperor,” featuring the trademark grandeur of the composer’s heroic period. Palm Beach Symphony opens the program with Sibelius’ atmospheric Night Ride and Sunrise, Op. 55 and closes it as it revels in the popular orchestral showcase of Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78 popularly known as the “Organ Symphony.”
Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition (where he remains the single American to have won the Gold Medal), Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. With the reopening of concert activity in the U.S. in summer 2021 he appeared with the Indianapolis and Cleveland orchestras, in a recital in San Francisco, in the Brevard Festival and four Brahms recitals at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. The 21-22 season began with the KBS, in Seoul followed by Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle symphonies, BBC Glasgow and European orchestras in Prague, Hamburg, Lyon and St. Petersburg. In recital he can be heard in Los Angeles, Houston, Kansas City as well as Poland, Germany and England. A GRAMMY winner, Ohlsson has also been honored with the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music and in August 2018 the Polish Deputy Culture Minister awarded him with the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit. The Seattle Times reported, “What a sound! Ohlsson is famous for that great sonority, though he never seems to be working very hard to produce it. There are no histrionics, no flailing or thumping or grand standing, just an incredible technique with razor-sharp accuracy, producing a sound so lush it almost glistens.”
Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. Handel’s Messiah Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Maestro Gerard Schwarz and the Palm Beach Symphony unwrap orchestral music’s most beloved gift to the holiday season with Handel’s Messiah featuring the rousing Hallelujah chorus. They are joined by soprano Robyn Marie Lamp, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche, tenor Jonathan Johnson and bass Richard Ollarsaba who perform the Handel’s dazzling vocal solos. The Messiah’s inspiration choral passages are delivered by Florida Atlantic University Chamber Singers and Schola Cantorum of Florida.
Robyn Marie Lamp made her Carnegie Hall debut in her 2018-19 season, singing the soprano solo in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and has performed with Boston Lyric Opera and in Florida with Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, Gulfshore Opera, South Florida Symphony Orchestra and Opera Fusion. An award recipient from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Stephanie Doche’s engagements in the 2022-23 Season include the title role in Handel’s “Ariodante” with Opera Neo, Rosina in “Il barbiere di Siviglia” with Florida Grand Opera, Nicklausse in “Tales of Hoffmann” with Opera Louisiane and Isabella in “L’Italiana in Algeri” with St. Petersburg Opera. In addition to tenor Jonathan Johnson’s recent engagements in the title role of Bernstein’s “Candide” with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra and Des Moines Metro Opera, he has appeared with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Philadelphia, San Diego Opera, Tulsa Opera and Opera Omaha. Mexican-American bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba represented the USA in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and has appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wolf Trap Opera, Dallas Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Philadelphia, North Carolina Opera and Minnesota Opera as well as internationally with New Zealand Opera and Opera Hong Kong. The Chamber Singers is the premier choral ensemble at Florida Atlantic University who perform on campus and in collaboration with the Delray Beach Chorale and the Delray Beach Chorale Chamber Ensemble. Schola Cantorum has performed in Palm Beach County since its founding in 1982 and, in 2016, established a partnership with the area of Choral and Vocal Studies at FAU as Ensemble in Residence.
Monday, January 30 at 8 p.m. Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano; Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Program:
Mozart: “Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio” and “Voi, che sapete” from “Le Nozze di Figaro” (“The Marriage of Figaro”)
Mozart: “Deh per questo istante solo” from “La Clemenza di Tito”
Lehár: “Vilja” from “The Merry Widow”
Berlioz: “Ah! Ah! je vais mourir…Adieu, fière cité” from “Les Troyens”
Plus selections from The Great American Songbook
Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93
Called by Gramophone magazine as “America’s favorite mezzo,” and the New York Times as “an artist to treasure,” mezzo-soprano Susan Graham joins Maestro Gerard Schwarz and the Palm Beach Symphony to perform arias from Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro and Le Nozze di Figaro,” Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” and Berlioz’ “Les Troyens” as well as selections from The Great American Songbook. The program also features the Symphony performing Debussy’s sensual and evocative Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) and Shostakovich’s dramatic and powerful Symphony No. 10 in E Minor, Op. 93, created after Stalin’s death by the great composer whose career that Russian leader had nearly ended.
Graham rose to the highest echelon of international performers within just a few years of her professional debut, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking,” which was written especially for her. A familiar face at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, she also maintains a strong international presence at such key venues as Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, Santa Fe Opera and the Hollywood Bowl. Her extensive concert and recital career includes collaborations with the world’s leading orchestras, and she makes regular appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and London Symphony Orchestra. Among her honors are a GRAMMY Award for her collection of Ives songs, Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year and an Opera News Award. The Boston Globe reviewed one of her concert performances noting, “Friday’s main draw was mezzo-soprano Susan Graham…Graham was in splendid voice and brought the music across with a luxurious, well-focused tone and plenty of dramatic conviction.”
Tuesday, March 14 at 8 p.m. Misha Dichter, piano; Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Program:
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F
Schwantner: As yet untitled World Premiere commissioned work by Palm Beach Symphony
Stravinsky: The Firebird
Maestro Gerard Schwarz and the Palm Beach Symphony are joined by pianist Misha Dichter, one of America’s most popular artists. Dichter performs a beloved work by one of America’s greatest composers with Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F Major and its uplifting fusion of jazz and dance rhythms. In a highlight of the season, the Symphony presents the world premiere of a work it commissioned from Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwantner, one of the most prominent American composers today. The program also features Stravinsky’s beloved celebration of Russian folklore with The Firebird.
Now in the sixth decade of a distinguished global career, Dichter has performed and recorded with some of the most illustrious conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries, among them Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Colin Davis, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Guilini, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Kiril Kondrashin, Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Eugene Ormandy, Carlos Prieto, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Gerard Schwarz, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, William Steinberg, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart, David Zinman and Pinchas Zukerman, while notable chamber music collaborations have included violinists Itzhak Perlman, Mark Peskanov and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, cellists Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma and the American, Argus, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, Harlem, St. Petersburg and Tokyo string quartets. Misha Dichter’s discography on the Philips, RCA, MusicMasters and Koch Classics labels are legendary, iconic and musically omnivorous, encompassing the major scores of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Gershwin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. The Los Angeles Times reported, “The pianist commands a wide dynamic and emotional range, finds nuances as well as new insights in all the music he plays, and places his details carefully. Dichter’s tremendous authority at the keyboard is the result of a comprehensive technique combined with an astute musicality.”
Sunday, April 16 at 8 p.m. Joshua Bell, violin; Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Program:
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 with original cadenza by Joshua Bell
Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture, Op. 26 (Fingals’ Cave)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 (Eroica)
Grammy-winner Joshua Bell, one of the most celebrated violinists of his era, joins Maestro Gerard Schwarz and Palm Beach Symphony to perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, arguably one of the masterworks of violin virtuosity and one to which Bell has added a cadenza of his own composition which he will perform. The concert opens with the Symphony performing Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (“Fingals’ Cave”) and its stirring musical summoning of nature’s drama and beauty found along the Scottish coast. The evening culminates with the Symphony performing Beethoven’s landmark Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major (“Eroica”) that launched his heroic period and broke new ground by creating a symphony composed like none ever before.
The New York Times noted, “Mr. Bell doesn’t stand in anyone’s shadow,” and with a career spanning four decades, Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world and continues to maintain engagements as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and Music Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Bell’s highlights in the 2021-22 season include leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the 2021 BBC Proms, throughout Europe and the U.S. on tour; returning with the Philadelphia Orchestra for a play/conduct program, to the Verbier Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic; and tours with the Israel Philharmonic and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra as soloist. As an exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 albums garnering GRAMMY®, Mercury®, Gramophone and OPUS KLASSIK awards. Bell has been named 2010 “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America, a 2007 “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, nominated for six GRAMMY® awards in addition to his win for “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” and received the 2007 Avery Fisher Prize. He has also received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and a 1991 Distinguished Alumni Service Award from the Jacobs School of Music. In 2000, he was named an “Indiana Living Legend.”
Monday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. Maria João Pires, piano; Conducted by Gerard Schwarz
Program:
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488 (Palm Beach Symphony Premiere)
Hailstork: Monuments for solo trombone and string orchestra (Florida Premiere of orchestral version)
Franck: Symphony in D Minor (Palm Beach Symphony Premiere)
Acclaimed piano virtuoso Maria Joao Pires makes a rare American appearance in the season finale joining Maestro Gerard Schwarz and the Palm Beach Symphony to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, which brilliantly blends the composer’s unique ability to both lift the heaviest heart and stir its deepest emotions. The program opens with the Florida premiere of the orchestral version of Adolphus Hailstork’s Monuments for solo trombone and string orchestra featuring Palm Beach Symphony Principal Trombone and Latin GRAMMY winner Domingo Pagliuca. The season culminates with the Symphony performing for the first time Franck’s Symphony in D Minor, which was once such a beloved staple of concert seasons that it appeared in programs at Carnegie Hall six times is less than two months in 1927.
A three-time GRAMMY nominee, Pires has made recordings for Erato for 15 years and Deutsche Grammophon for 20 years. Since the 1970s, she has devoted herself to reflecting the influence of art in life, community and education, trying to discover new ways of establishing this way of thinking in society. In 1999, Pires created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal and, in 2012, she initiated two complementary projects in Belgium: the Partitura Choirs, a project which creates and develops choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the Partitura Workshops. All of the Partitura projects have the aim to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations by proposing an alternative in a world too often focused on competitiveness.
Proud sponsors of Palm Beach Symphony include The Lachman Family Foundation, Patrick and Milly Park, Felicia Taylor Gottsegen/The Mary Hilem Taylor Foundation, DeLuca Foundation, Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation, Charles and Ann Johnson/The C and A Johnson Family Foundation, Patricia Lambrecht, Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation, NetJets, Lugano Diamonds, Findlay Galleries, HSS Florida, PNC Private Bank, The Colony Hotel, Related Companies, Provident Jewelry, IYC, Palm Beach Design Masters, Braman Motorcars, CIBC Private Wealth, and Gent Row LLC. Programs are also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
ABOUT PALM BEACH SYMPHONY
Palm Beach Symphony is South Florida’s premier orchestra known for its diverse repertoire and commitment to community. Founded in 1974, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization adheres to a mission of engaging, educating, and entertaining the greater community of the Palm Beaches through live performances of inspiring orchestral music. The orchestra is celebrated for delivering spirited performances by first-rate musicians and distinguished guest artists. Recognized by The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County with a 2020 Muse Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, Palm Beach Symphony continues to expand its education and community outreach programs with children’s concerts, student coaching sessions and master classes, instrument donations and free public concerts that have reached more than 64,000 students in recent years. For more information, visit www.palmbeachsymphony.org.
For tickets please call (561) 281-0145 or Visit PalmBeachSymphony.org
Tickets are also available at the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office weekdays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
at 400 Hibiscus Street, Suite 100, West Palm Beach.
Venues and Ticket Prices: Vary by concert as detailed below.
All dates, times, programs, artists and ticket prices are subject to change without notice.
Content Courtesy of Palm Beach Symphony
