Bernstein and Copland Brings Classical Music With a New Attitude
to the Pasadena Symphony
Pasadena, CA – Music Director David Lockington and the Pasadena Symphony continue the 18-19 Classics season with Bernstein and Copland on Saturday, November 17 at Ambassador Auditorium with performances at 2pm and 8pm. On the heels of Bernstein’s centennial, the performance will celebrate American masters, with a program that bridges popular and classical music through the tradition of great storytelling. Hear everything from Bernstein masterpieces chronicling mid-century New York City with West Side Story and his one and only film score, On the Waterfront, to his good friend Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid Suite encapsulating the vast open spaces of the American West. Adolphus Hailstork’s more contemporary An American Port of Call opens the program with blue notes and jazz riffs echoing Bernstein’s earlier work, and Samuel Barber’s brilliantly romantic Violin Concerto rounds out the all-American program.
Joining the orchestra for this exclusive performance, Sphinx laureate Melissa White will take center stage for Barber’s lyrical and virtuosic Violin Concerto. Well-known for bridging jazz and classical, White is a founding member of New York-based Harlem Quartet, where since 2006 her passion and artistry have contributed to performances that have been hailed for their “panache” (The New York Times) and for “bringing a new attitude to classical music.” (Cincinnati Enquirer). To learn more about Melissa or the music being performed, come early for Insights – a free pre-concert dialogue with Music Director David Lockington and Melissa White that begins one hour prior to each concert.
The Pasadena Symphony provides a socially vibrant experience specially designed for the music lover, the social butterfly or a date night out, and the inner epicurean in us all. Patrons can plan to arrive early for Insights, a pre-concert discussion with Music Director David Lockington that begins one hour prior to curtain. The luxurious Symphony Lounge provides yet another addition to the delightful and elegant concert experience the Pasadena Symphony offers. A posh setting at Ambassador Auditorium’s beautiful outdoor plaza, audiences enjoy uniquely prepared menus for both lunch and dinner at each concert from Claud &Co, fine wines by Michero Family Wines, plus music before the concert and during intermission.
All concerts are held at Ambassador Auditorium, 131 South St. John Ave, Pasadena, CA with both matinee and evening performances at 2pm and 8pm. Single tickets start at $35 and may be purchased online at www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org or by calling (626) 793-7172. A limited number of tickets will be available at the box office on the day of the concert.
IF YOU GO:
- What: The Pasadena Symphony presents Bernstein & Copland
David Lockington, conductor
Melissa White, violinHailstork An American Port of Call
Barber Violin Concerto
Copland Billy the Kid Suite
Bernstein On the Waterfront
Bernstein West Side Story Selections - When: Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm
- Where: Ambassador Auditorium | 131 South St. John Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105
- Cost: Tickets start at $35.00
- Parking: Valet parking is available on Green Street for $20. General parking is available in two locations: next to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave) at the covered parking structure for $10 and directly across the street at the Wells Fargo parking structure (entrance on Terrace at Green St). ADA parking is located at the above-ground parking lot adjacent to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave.) for $10. Parking purchased onsite is cash only.
- Symphony Lounge: Located on the plaza at Ambassador Auditorium. Opens at 12:30 pm before the matinee and 6:00 pm before the evening performance.
- Pre-Concert Discussion: Pre-concert discussion with David Lockington begins one hour before curtain and is available to all ticket holders at no cost.
ABOUT THE PASADENA SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION
Recent Acclaim for the Pasadena Symphony and POPS:
“The Pasadena Symphony signals a new direction…teeming with vitality…dripping with opulent, sexy emotion.” Los Angeles Times.
“…full of pulsating energy from first note to last… the strings were lushly resonant, the wind principals were at the top of their games, and the brass rang out with gleaming vigor.” –Pasadena Star News.
Formed in 1928, the Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Hollywood’s most talented, sought after musicians. With extensive credits in the film, television, recording and orchestral industry, the artists of Pasadena Symphony and POPS are the most heard in the world.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS performs in two of the most extraordinary venues in the United States: Ambassador Auditorium, known as the Carnegie Hall of the West, and the luxuriant Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden. Internationally recognized, Grammy-nominated conductor, David Lockington, serves as the Pasadena Symphony Association’s Music Director, with performance-practice specialist Nicholas McGegan serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The multi-platinum-selling, two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated entertainer dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” Michael Feinstein, is the Principal Pops Conductor, who succeeded Marvin Hamlisch in the newly created Marvin Hamlisch Chair.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served the youth of the region for over five decades through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO) comprised of five performing ensembles, with over 250 gifted 4th-12th grade students from more than 50 schools all over the Southern California region. The PYSO Symphony often performs on the popular television show GLEE.
The PSA provides people from all walks of life with powerful access points to the world of symphonic music.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
David Lockington
Music Director
David Lockington began his career as a cellist and was the Principal with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cambridge where he was a choral scholar, Mr. Lockington came to the United States on a scholarship to Yale University where he received his Master’s Degree in cello performance and studied conducting with Otto Werner Mueller. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and served as assistant principal cellist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra for three years before turning to conducting. Over the past thirty years, David Lockington has developed an impressive conducting career in the United States. A native of Great Britain, he served as the Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony from January 1999 to May 2015, and is currently the orchestra’s Conductor Laureate. He has held the position of Music Director with the Modesto Symphony since May 2007 and in March 2013, Mr. Lockington was appointed Music Director of the Pasadena Symphony. He has a close relationship with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain, where he was the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor from 2012 through 2016, and in the 15/16 season was named one of three Artistic Partners with the Northwest Sinfonietta in Tacoma, Washington.
In addition to his current posts, since his arrival to the United States in 1978 Mr. Lockington has held positions with several other American orchestras, including serving as Assistant Conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and Opera Colorado, and Assistant and Associate Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In May 1993 he accepted the position of Music Director of the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, assumed the title of Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in September 1995 and was Music Director of the Long Island Philharmonic for the 96/97 through 99/2000 seasons.
Mr. Lockington’s guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Saint Louis, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon and Phoenix symphonies; the Rochester and Louisiana Philharmonics; and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Internationally, he has conducted the Northern Sinfonia in Great Britain, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in Beijing and Taiwan,and led the English Chamber Orchestra on a tour in Asia.
Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include appearances with the New Jersey, Indianapolis, Utah, Pacific, Colorado, Nashville, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Stamford, Tucson and Kansas City symphonies, the Florida and Louisville Orchestras, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the Buffalo, Calgary and Oklahoma Philharmonics. Mr. Lockington’s summer festival activities include appearances at the Grand Teton, Colorado Music, Interlochen, Chautauqua and Eastern Music festivals.
David Lockington began his career as a cellist and was the Principal with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cambridge where he was a choral scholar, Mr. Lockington came to the United States on a scholarship to Yale University where he received his Master’s Degree in cello performance and studied conducting with Otto Werner Mueller. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and served as assistant principal cellist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra for three years before turning to conducting.
Melissa White
Violin
American violinist Melissa White has enchanted audiences around the world as both a soloist and a chamber musician. A first-prize laureate in the Sphinx Competition, Ms. White has received critical acclaim for solo performances with some of America’s leading ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras. In April 2016 she served as interim concertmaster in performances and recordings of the Louisville Orchestra. Internationally, she has appeared as soloist with Poland’s Fillharmonia Dolnoslaska; with the Colombian Youth Orchestra in a tour of that country; and as a recitalist in Baku, Azerbaijian. In the 2017-18 season Ms. White makes her solo debut with the National Philharmonic (North Bethesda, Maryland) performing the Brahms Violin Concerto, and returns to the Chicago Sinfonietta, where she will partner with fellow Sphinx Laureate Ifetayo Ali-Landing in Saint-Saëns’s La muse et le poète for violin, cello and orchestra.
Ms. White is a founding member of New York-based Harlem Quartet, where since 2006 her passion and artistry have contributed to performances that have been hailed for their “panache” (The New York Times) and for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent” (Cincinnati Enquirer). Together with Harlem Quartet she has worked with such classical-music luminaries as Itzhak Perlman, Ida Kavakian, Paul Katz, and Anthony McGill; appeared in many of the country’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, the White House, and the Kennedy Center; and performed in Europe, Africa, Japan, and the U.K., where in 2017 the quartet begins a three-year residency with London’s Royal College of Music. Ms. White’s passion for chamber music recently expanded to sharing the stage with the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra during the famed ensemble’s tour of Japan.
Always looking to expand musical boundaries, Ms. White has partnered with such leading jazz musicians as pianist/composer Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke, and vibraphonist Gary Burton. Following an extended international tour with Corea and Burton, Harlem Quartet collaborated with the duo in recording Hot House, a CD that garnered three Grammy Awards in 2013 including a Best Instrumental Composition award for Corea’s “Mozart Goes Dancing.”
In addition to her musical role with Harlem Quartet, Ms. White serves as the ensemble’s in-house grant writer. In this capacity, she has written several successful grants, including a Cultural Connections Artist-in-Residence grant from James Madison University and a 2016 Guarneri String Quartet grant from Chamber Music America; the latter allowed Harlem Quartet to participate in an extended performance and educational residency in Mobile, Alabama that included a close partnership with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra.
A native of Michigan, Ms. White holds performance degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried. Her current instrument, “Matilda,” was commissioned as part of a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant in 2014 by the American violin maker Ryan Soltis. When she doesn’t have a violin in her hands, Ms. White is an advanced practitioner of Bikram yoga, and is co-founder and artistic director of Intermission, a new program that combines yoga and music. She also enjoys taking photos while exploring the many places around the world that her music has allowed her to visit.
