Pacific Symphony Orchestra
Orchestras
Pacific Symphony, celebrating its 33rd season in 2011-12, is led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, who marks his 22nd season with the orchestra .The largest orchestra formed in the U.S. in the last 40 years, the Symphony is recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene, as well as in its own burgeoning community of Orange County. Presenting more than 100 concerts a year and a rich array of education and community programs, the Symphony reaches more than 275,000 residents—from school children to senior citizens.
The Symphony offers moving musical experiences with repertoire ranging from the great orchestral masterworks to music from today’s most prominent composers, highlighted by the annual American Composers Festival and a new series of multi-media concerts called “Music Unwound.”
The Symphony also offers a popular Pops season led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman, who celebrates 21 years with the orchestra in 2011-12. The Pops series stars some of the world’s leading entertainers and is enhanced by state-of-the-art video and sound. Each Pacific Symphony season also includes Café Ludwig, a three-concert chamber music series, and Classical Connections, an orchestral series on Sunday afternoons offering rich explorations of selected works led by St.Clair. Assistant Conductor Maxim Eshkenazy brings a passionate commitment to building the next generation of audience and performer through his leadership of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as the highly regarded Family Musical Mornings series.
Since 2006–07, the Symphony has performed in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, with striking architecture by Cesar Pelli and acoustics by the late Russell Johnson. In September 2008, the Symphony debuted the hall’s critically acclaimed 4,322-pipe William J. Gillespie Concert Organ.
In 2006, the Symphony embarked on its first European tour, performing in nine cities (including Vienna, Munich and Lucerne) in three countries—receiving an unprecedented 22 highly favorable reviews.
Founded in 1978, as a collaboration between California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and North Orange County community leaders led by Marcy Mulville, the Symphony performed its first concerts at Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium as the Fullerton Chamber Orchestra under the baton of then CSUF orchestra conductor Keith Clark. The following season the Symphony expanded is size, changed its name to Pacific Symphony Orchestra and moved to Knott’s Berry Farm. The subsequent six seasons led by Keith Clark were at Santa Ana High School auditorium where the Symphony also made its first six acclaimed recordings. In September 1986 the Symphony moved to the new Orange County Performing Arts Center, where Clark served as music director until 1990.
The Symphony received the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming in 2005 and 2010. In 2010, a study by the League of American Orchestras, “Fearless Journeys,” included the Symphony as one of the country’s five most innovative orchestras. The orchestra has commissioned such leading composers as Michael Daugherty, James Newton Howard, Paul Chihara, Philip Glass, William Bolcom, Daniel Catán, William Kraft, Tobias Picker, Frank Ticheli, and Chen Yi, who composed a cello concerto in 2004 for Yo-Yo Ma. The Symphony has also commissioned and recorded An American Requiem, by Richard Danielpour, and Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio with Yo-Yo Ma.
The Symphony’s award-winning education programs benefit from the vision of St.Clair and are designed to integrate the Symphony and its music into the community in ways that stimulate all ages. The orchestra’s Class Act residency program has been honored as one of nine exemplary orchestra education programs in the nation by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of American Orchestras. Added to Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra on the list of instrumental training initiatives since the 2007-08 season are Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble and Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings.
In addition to its winter home, the Symphony presents a summer outdoor series at Irvine’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, the organization’s summer residence since 1987.
Season 2011/2012
CARL ST.CLAIR, Music Director
North American-born conductor Carl St. Clair is Music Director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in California. His lengthy history with the Symphony solidifies the strong relationship he has forged with the musicians and the community. Carl St. Clair has become widely recognized for his musically distinguished performances, his commitment to building outstanding educational programmes and his innovative approaches to programming.
With his career spanning both sides of the Atlantic, Carl St. Clair was General Music Director of the Komische Oper in Berlin between 2008 and 2010 where he led many very successful new opera productions such as La Traviata (directed by Hans Neuenfels), the world-premiere of Christian Jost’s opera Hamlet with Stella Doufexis in the title role and a new production of Reimann’s Lear (also by Hans Neuenfels), which not only the audience and press rated highly but which also enthused the composer himself.
As Music Director of the Deutsche National Theater and Staatskapelle Weimar from 2005 – 2008, Carl St. Clair initiated and conducted a critically acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Between 1998 and 2005, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart with whom he recorded all the Villa-Lobos symphonies for the cpo label. In the USA, he was Music Director of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra from 1985–1992, having only just completed his position as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
Carl St. Clair is a regular guest with major orchestras worldwide. In North America, he has led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta and Houston Symphonies. In Germany, he has appeared with the Bamberg Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio, Cologne Radio (WDR), Frankfurt Museum-Orchestra, Hannover Radio (NDR Radiophilharmonie), Hamburg Radio (NDR Symphony Orchestra), Leipzig Radio (MDR) and many others.
Largely influenced by a close association with Leonard Bernstein, St. Clair’s dedication to the development and performance of new works especially by American composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by Pacific Symphony. Under his guidance, the orchestra has commissioned works such as most recently Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna, William Bolcom’s lied-cycle Canciones de Lorca which was premiered by Placido Domingo and Chen Yi’s cello concerto composed for cellist Yo-Yo Ma Ballad, Dance and Fantasy. Many have subsequently been recorded, including Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio on Sony Classical also with Yo–Yo Ma. Another highly acclaimed Sony Classical recording includes later works by Toru Takemitsu. For Koch Classics he recorded works by Frank Tichely and John Corigliano. In 2001, the recording of Richard Danielpour’s An American Requiem, another commissioned work, was recorded for Reference Recordings.
This season in Europe, Carl St. Clair will return to the MDR Leipzig Radio as well as the Duisburg Philharmonic orchestras.
In 1990, Carl St. Clair was awarded the “National Endowment for the Arts – Seaver Conductors Awards”, the most important national arts award in the US.
St. Clair studied opera and orchestra conducting at the University of Texas with Walter Ducloux, a former pupil of Weingartner and Furtwängler. St. Clair counts among his mentors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Masur.
Season 2011/2012
