A Triumphant Tenth Season for Symphonia Boca Raton
By Skip Sheffield
How fortunate that Boca Raton music lovers have our very own
world-class chamber orchestra. It's known as The Symphonia Boca Raton, and it provides a pleasing blend of classics and contemporary music.
The Symphonia Boca Raton is celebrating its tenth season. Thanks
to loyal support from classical music lovers, it stands to be around at least
another ten years. The first Connoisseur Concerts of the season will be
presented Dec. 4-6 under the guest direction of Alastair Willis.
As an historical footnote, there was a previous symphony
orchestra in Boca Raton, which merged with the Fort Lauderdale Philharmonic
Orchestra to become the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. Sadly the Florida
Philharmonic bowed out in 2003 amid insurmountable financial difficulties.
Operating a classical orchestra is expensive, but Boca
Symphonia was founded in 2004 on a sound business model by Marshall Turkin and
Martin B. Coyne; both music professionals, with FPO principal trumpet Jeffrey
Kaye as manager (and now artistic director). They enlisted the help of generous
philanthropists Edith and Martin Stein for seed money and continuing support.
The result is an orchestra that apart from its four Connoisseur Concert Season
plays Festival of Arts Boca. It accompanies the Master Chorale of South
Florida, and performs community concerts sponsored by the City of Boca Raton.
An outreach program provides education for young people.
The December Connoisseur Weekend begins with an 11:30 Friday
Dec. 4 Box lunch with the Symphonia at the Unitarian Congregation, 2601 St.
Andrews Blvd. The Allegro Society sponsorship offers music lovers a sample of
the Symphonia’s rehearsal and conversations with the musicians and guest
artists. Grammy-nominated Alastair Willis, currently Music Director of the
Illinois Symphony, returns as guest conductor. Willis will speak about the
concert, which features Kodaly, Mozart and Beethoven in a “Gypsy Airs” program.
The box lunch cost is $35, or all four box lunches for $100.
Saturday, Dec. 5 is a special day for children and their
families, with an opportunity to interact with the conductor and musicians
starting at 10:30 a.m. in the intimate, acoustically excellent Roberts Theatre
of St. Andrew’s School, 3900 Jog Road. Admission is free for children and just
$5 for adults.
The main event is the 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 Connoisseur
Concert at Roberts Theatre. The soloist is violinist Charles Weatherbee of the
University of Colorado, Boulder and first violin of the Carpe Diem String Quartet.
He will be featured on Mozart’s Violin Concert No. 5, A major. Beethoven’
Symphony No. 7, A major, op. 92 will be played. Mozart’s Violin Concerto should
be familiar to most. Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly is less familiar, but he
is a major name in classical music, having devised his own method of education.
His “Dances of Galanta” will be performed.
Subsequent Connoisseur Concerts will be presented Jan. 8-10
with conductor and soloist David Kim, violin for a program of Bach, Pachebel
and Piazzola. The Feb. 5-7 Connoisseur weekend features guest conductor Carolyn
Kuan and piano soloist Alexandre Moutouzkine performing Copland, Poulenc, Faure
and the ever-popular Mozart. Finally March 18-20 welcomes returning guest
conductor Gerard Schwartz and famed piano soloist Misha Dichter performing
Beethoven, Ives and Mendelssohn.
Season subscriptions range from $150 to $250. Single tickets
are $45-$75. Call 866-687-1201 or go to tickets@thesymphonia.org.
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