The Akron Symphony is proud to announce dates for the 2008-2009 season. The new season offers a musical medley of musical experiences, from Tchaikovsky to Mozart to Beethoven and beyond. With something for everyone, the season includes a variety of programming such as a Classical celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday; a swinging Pops performance of Frank Sinatra’s hit songs; and an out of this world musical Odyssey featuring the music and myth of the Star Wars film saga. Look here and in your mailbox for more details. In the meantime, here’s what the Akron Beacon Journal had to say about the new season.
Also, new subscribers can save up to 50% when they purchase either a Classic, Odyssey, or Pops series subscription. Call 330-535-8131 and reserve your seats today!
Saturday’s concert to feature orchestra, chorus, guest vocalists
Akron—The Akron Symphony will present Haydn’s master work, The Creation, this Saturday, April 19 at 8:00 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall on the campus of The University of Akron. Music Director Christopher Wilkins will lead the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and guest vocalists Joyce Guyer (soprano), Karl Dent (tenor), and Timothy Jones (bass-baritone) through Haydn’s musical depiction of the seven days of the creation of the world as recounted in the Biblical book of Genesis. The Creation is the seventh and final Akron Symphony Classic concert of the 2007-2008 season.
For those who were not at the concert on Saturday, here is an idea of what you missed in the clip below. Guest violinist Feng Ning brought the audience to their feet as they demanded an encore from the Paganini Winner. Feng obliged them with an impromptu performance of Paganini’s Duo For One Violin. Just more proof that you can’t afford to miss a single Akron Symphony concert.
Akron Symphony’s March 15 Concert Goes All Beethoven Concert To Feature Award-Winning Violinist, Feng Ning
Akron—The Akron Symphony will present Gold Medal Beethoven on Saturday, March 15 at 8:00 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall on the campus of The University of Akron. Music Director Christopher Wilkins will lead the Akron Symphony through three transcendent works from the legendary composer, including the Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 4 in B-flat. Guest violinist and 2006 Paganini Gold Medalist Feng Ning will perform with the orchestra during Violin Concerto in D. Gold Medal Beethoven is the sixth Classic concert for the ASO and the penultimate for the 2007-2008 season.
Maestro Wilkins had originally wanted Feng Ning for a concert last season, but there were some problems. Wilkins explains:
I first worked with Feng Ning in New Zealand as part of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, which he eventually won. I was so taken with his musicianship and technical fluency that shortly thereafter I invited him to perform with the Akron Symphony. This was to have been during our 2006-2007 season, but due to visa issues we were unable to secure a date. When I approached him again this season, he accepted immediately and then asked gently whether I knew that he had just won the Paganini Competition. Attached to his e-mail was a photograph of Feng playing Paganini’s Stradivarius. It will be a privilege to present him to Akron.
The Plain Dealer’s Donald Rosenberg has posted an article at Cleveland.com profiling Benjamin Zander and the concert on Sunday.
Zander, 68, is here at the invitation of Christopher Wilkins, music director of the Akron Symphony, a friend and colleague since the latter was an oboist in the former’s youth orchestra in Boston three decades ago.
Putting on Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is a pricey endeavor requiring chorus, massive orchestra and vocal soloists (oh, and conductor). Zander helped solve the problem of expense by suggesting that the Akron Symphony find a corporation — FirstEnergy eventually signed on — to sponsor the concerts and his local talk on “The Art of Possibility,” which he has delivered several times at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Zander is accepting no fee for his services this week, a testament both to his friendship with Wilkins and to his mission to spread the word of classical music. He believes musicians are empowered when they have input in the artistic product.
Benjamin Zander made an appearance on WCPN’s Around Noon program with host Dee Perry on Tuesday. During the radio interview, Maestro Zander discussed his dual career as Music Director of the Boston Philharmonic and one of the world’s most sought-after speakers on leadership, and his week-long collaboration with the ASO, culminating in two performances of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Resurrection this weekend at E.J. Thomas Hall at the University of Akron on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Severance Hall in Cleveland. Listen to the full interview here.
Check out this interview with Akron Symphony Music Director, Christopher Wilkins, and his friend, the legendary Benjamin Zander on WKYC’s Good Company morning show.
Both the West Side Leader and The Akron Beacon Journal have stories this week about “Zander Week,” which begins Sunday with Classical Fever, a free concert at E.J. Thomas Hall at 7:30 p.m. The full articles can be found here and here.
What is the message that brought tears and laughter to the financial wizards and tycoons at the just-concluded World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland?
It was what Benjamin Zander calls his message of possibility, as set out in The Art of Possibility, the best-selling book he co-authored with his wife, Rosamund Stone Zander.
Anyone who attends the free University of Akron Forum Series lecture by Zander at 4 p.m. Tuesday will get what Davos listeners got, and more, the peripatetic conductor and motivational speaker, 68, said. He was briefly at home in Boston before heading out again to speak to a group of 2,200 human resources people in Toronto and then to a dental convention in Nashville.
- Elaine Guregian, The Akron Beacon Journal (2-1-08)
DOWNTOWN AKRON — It’s a big deal when the Akron Symphony Orchestra (ASO) brings in a music conductor of Benjamin Zander’s stature as guest leader for its concerts featuring Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” at both E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall in Akron Feb. 9 and Severance Hall in Cleveland Feb. 10.
A recent article in the Elyria Choronicle-Telegram profiled two Akron Symphony musicians, Tom Flowers and Ann Gilbert, about their lives as public school teachers and the excitement surrounding the Akron Symphony’s debut in Cleveland’s Severance Hall under Maestro Benjamin Zander on February 10.
It’s an honor that Flowers, who has never played at Severance Hall, does not take lightly.
“I’ve seen many concerts at Severance Hall, and I know it sounds good. I’m excited to be on stage for a chance,” he said. “People come to Cleveland to study with the Cleveland Orchestra, and that’s what brought me to the Cleveland area. To actually play where they play is a great honor.”
The Akron Symphony is proud to announce dates for the 2008-2009 season. The new season offers a musical medley of musical experiences, from Tchaikovsky to Mozart to Beethoven and beyond. With something for everyone, the season includes a variety of programming such as a Classical celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday; a swinging Pops performance of Frank Sinatra’s hit songs; and an out of this world musical Odyssey featuring the music and myth of the Star Wars film saga. Look here and in your mailbox for more details. In the meantime, here’s what the Akron Beacon Journal had to say about the new season.
Akron—The Akron Symphony will present Haydn’s master work, The Creation, this Saturday, April 19 at 8:00 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall on the campus of The University of Akron. Music Director Christopher Wilkins will lead the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and guest vocalists Joyce Guyer (soprano), Karl Dent (tenor), and Timothy Jones (bass-baritone) through Haydn’s musical depiction of the seven days of the creation of the world as recounted in the Biblical book of Genesis. The Creation is the seventh and final Akron Symphony Classic concert of the 2007-2008 season.
Akron—The Akron Symphony will present Gold Medal Beethoven on Saturday, March 15 at 8:00 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall on the campus of The University of Akron. Music Director Christopher Wilkins will lead the Akron Symphony through three transcendent works from the legendary composer, including the Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 4 in B-flat. Guest violinist and 2006 Paganini Gold Medalist Feng Ning will perform with the orchestra during Violin Concerto in D. Gold Medal Beethoven is the sixth Classic concert for the ASO and the penultimate for the 2007-2008 season.
WKSU
Both the West Side Leader and The Akron Beacon Journal have stories this week about “Zander Week,” which begins Sunday with 
