The red carpet will be rolled out for the San Luis Obispo Symphony audience on opening night, set for at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8 beginning one singularly transformative season for the organization. Tickets are available online at: PACSLO.org.
This first of five “Classics in the Cohan” concerts at Cal Poly’s Performing Arts Center features Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. In a matter of eight notes, this symphony is one of the most recognizable and beloved pieces of music played around the globe. Maestro Andrew Sewell, music director of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, will lead the Symphony with virtuoso violinist, Giora Schmidt, as featured soloist.
The concert opens with Rossini’s joyful overture from the comedic opera, “The Barber of Seville.” Then Schmidt, a student of renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, collaborates with Sewell and the orchestra on Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole.”
The highlight of the performance and the concert’s finale will be Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5 in C minor.” As with many classic symphonies, Beethoven’s 5th was not well received when it debuted.
Cal Poly music professor, Dr. Alyson McLamore, in the program notes said, “People often enjoy tales of unrecognized genius — the failing grades Albert Einstein earned in school, the jeers targeted at Galileo for claiming the earth revolved around the sun, and so forth.
“Yet, it is astonishing to think that one of classical music’s most famous works — if not the most famous — met with a poor reception. Actually, it wasn’t so much that the poorly rehearsed Symphony No. 5 was panned outright; it was overshadowed by various disasters suffered by other pieces on the same enormous program. Nevertheless, there were those who recognized the symphony’s incredible power from the start, and, of course, since it has been linked in listeners’ minds with Beethoven’s determination to overcome his despair over his failing hearing, the work has become an indelible symbol of triumph over adversity.”
Maestro Sewell has enjoyed 15 seasons as music director of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison. His previous appointments include music director with the Wichita Symphony, Mansfield Symphony (Ohio), and Resident Conductor of the Toledo Symphony, also in the Buckeye State.
A native of New Zealand, Maestro Sewell has guest conducted the Detroit Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Oklahoma Mozart Festival, Monterey Symphony and National Symphony of Mexico. Andrew Sewell holds a Master of Music Degree with Honors in conducting from the University of Michigan.
Soloist Schmidt has appeared with many prominent symphony orchestras around the globe including Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Vancouver and the Israel Philharmonic. He made his Carnegie Hall debut performing the Barber Violin Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony. In recital and chamber music, Giora has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, San Francisco Performances, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Tokyo’s Musashino Cultural Hall.
Born in Philadelphia in 1983 to professional musicians from Israel, Schmidt began playing the violin at the age of four. He has studied with Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music, and Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School.
