Poway Symphony Orchestra announces 20th anniversary season concerts

By SDCN Editor

Poway, CA–The Poway Symphony Orchestra has announced the program of concerts for its 20th anniversary performance season for 2023-2024. 

Music Director and Conductor John LoPiccolo has planned some very special music that will kick off on November 19 with a concert featuring violinist Eugene Drucker, of the Emerson String Quartet, as a guest artist.

The Poway Symphony Orchestra will offer three concerts in its 20th Anniversary Season, all taking place at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts at 4 p.m. on Sundays.

“After careful thought about the music to celebrate the orchestra’s milestone season, I’m absolutely thrilled to share the details of the fabulous line-up of renowned symphonic works and major guest artists our orchestra will be presenting for 2023-2024,” LoPiccolo said. “This is going to be one of our biggest seasons ever in terms of the music that we’ll be performing and the guest soloists we’re bringing to the stage. Our orchestra members are excited, and our community is in for a real treat!”

The November 19 opening concert will feature Eugene Drucker, violinist and founding member of the world-famous Emerson String Quartet. He will perform the sublime Concerto in G minor, No. 1 by Bruch, as well as Beethoven’s Romance in F Major, No. 2. The orchestra will also perform the Overture to “Hansel and Gretel” by Humperdinck and Symphonic Dances, Opus 64 by Grieg.

The March 24, 2024 celebration concert includes two orchestral masterpieces that will showcase the talent of the orchestra. The ever-popular Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov is dazzling and dramatic, thrilling audiences with musical adventures based upon the tales from The Arabian Nights. Also on the program is the spectacular Sinfonia Sacra by Panufnik. The work, composed in 1963, begins with a solemn trumpet fanfare and contains meditative sections for the strings that develop into astonishing full orchestra crescendos.

The season will close on May 26, 2024, with a return to classical gems, including the delightful Piano Concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann, featuring Ching-Ming Cheng as soloist. Dr. Cheng is a professor at California State University San Marcos and the chair of the music department at that university. The orchestra will round out the concert with the overture to “Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart and Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Brahms.

“Now that the orchestra is embarking on its 20th anniversary season and looking at a bright future, it is important to recognize where we came from,” said Bo Matthys, President of the Poway Symphony Orchestra Foundation.” In the summer of 2004, Ulli Reiner, Concertmaster, brought together some interested musicians with the idea of presenting classical music concerts to the community. The Orchestra’s first performance took place on April 1, 2005.

For ticket information, call the Poway Center for the Performing Arts box office at (858) 748-0505 or online at www.powaycenter.com. For more information about the Poway Symphony Orchestra, visit www.powaysymphonyorchestra.org.