Even if you’ve never been to a classical concert, John LoPiccolo hopes you can make it to the Nov. 19 season opening of the Poway Symphony Orchestra.
“The experience will be once in a lifetime,” said LoPiccolo, the Poway Symphony music director and conductor.
The concert will be special on several levels — it celebrates an anniversary for the Poway Symphony and features a special guest.
“It’s our 20th anniversary, and we’re hoping to show the audience how far the orchestra has come,” LoPiccolo said.
The season opener will feature Eugene Drucker, violinist and founding member of the world-famous Emerson String Quartet.
It will be one of Drucker’s first solo appearances since wrapping up a 47-year career performing with the Emerson String Quartet. The group disbanded after its final concert in late October in New York.
Known as “America’s greatest quartet,” the group has long been recognized as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles.
In addition to his role in the quartet, Drucker directs, teaches, is an award-winning solo violinist, a composer and published author.
He is music director of the Bach at New Year’s concerts for the Berkshire Bach Society, a visiting professor of chamber music at Stony Brook University and has appeared as a solo violinist with orchestras all over the world. His numerous honors include nine Grammy awards and three Gramophone Magazine awards.
“I have never seen a community orchestra bring in someone of his stature and we are on a roll of doing that, and that comes from building our performances better and better through the years,” LoPiccolo said.
The Poway Symphony is playing at such a consistently high level, he said, that “we are now in a position to be attracting major guest artists.”
The fact that Drucker and LoPiccolo attended the same high school — the High School of Music in Harlem, New York — is an added treat for LoPiccolo.
“We graduated in 1968 and went separate ways,” he said, noting that they signed each other’s yearbooks and he often sat beside Drucker in classes. Drucker continued on to The Juilliard School, while LoPiccolo attended the music conservatory Mannes School of Music, both in New York.
After learning that the Quartet was disbanding, LoPiccolo ed Drucker about the possibility of ing a Poway Symphony performance.
“To my surprise, he ed me and agreed,” he said.
The next step was agreeing on a repertoire, which the orchestra has already been rehearsing.
“He’s coming in next Thursday and we are gong to try and put the whole thing together in two hours with a rehearsal Friday night,” LoPiccolo said.
He said he will learn Drucker’s ideas for how to play, and then will be responsible for translating that to the orchestra.
“There will be no more stopping and discussing after our rehearsal. It’s a huge, huge challenge, but we’ve done it in the past and are looking forward to it,” LoPiccolo said.
The entire orchestra is excited to meet the violinist and play together, he added.
“From my experience, the thrill of waiting for this experience is just magical. The culmination of all this work is the rapport between the artists and what we get across to the audience,” he said. “We want to show them that we are a force to be reckoned with and we are looking forward to sharing this with the community.”
The Poway Symphony’s 20th Anniversary season begins with the Overture to “Hansel and Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck and Symphonic Dances, Opus 64 by Edvard Grieg. Drucker will then the orchestra to perform the Concerto in G minor, No. 1 by Max Bruch, as well as Ludwig van Beethoven’s Romance in F Major, No. 2.
Tickets for the Nov. 19 opener are $35 to $45 for general ission, with discounts for seniors, students and young
children.
On March 24, 2024, a 20th Anniversary Celebration Concert will be held, featuring “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Koraskov and “Sinfonia Sacra” by Panufnik.
The season closes on May 26 with Classical Gems. Ching-Ming Cheng is guest soloist for “Piano Concerto in A minor” by Robert Schumann. Other selections include “Overture to ‘Marriage of Figaro’” by Mozart and “Variations on
a Theme by Haydn” by Brahms.
The 65-member, semi-professional orchestra performs music of the great historical composers, with nationally renowned guest artists. Concerts take place at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road.
Tickets for the Nov. 19 concert can be purchased at the center’s website at http://www.powaycenter.com or by calling 858-748-0505. The box office is open from noon to 5 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and one hour before the concert.
For more information, visit www.powaysymphonyorchestra.org.
