Concerts, Chamber Music Programs : New World Symphony Summer Festival Bill Announced

Four orchestral concerts and three chamber music programs will be featured in the New World Symphony Summer Festival being sponsored June 24 to July 26 by the Orange County Philharmonic Society, UC Irvine and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Workshops and master classes, open to the public, also will be held.

The symphony, a training orchestra based in Florida, will be conducted twice by Michael Tilson Thomas, who founded the orchestra last year, and twice by Eduardo Mata, music director of the Dallas Symphony.

At a press conference at UC Irvine, Erich Vollmer, executive director of the Philharmonic Society, said the festival budget is about $500,000 and is to be raised from corporate and private donations as well as from ticket sales to the concerts.

Vollmer would not disclose how much if any of the money has been raised, and would not identify any donors. Costs will be shared equally by the three sponsors, he said.

“Nothing like this has occurred (locally) before,” Vollmer added. “We don’t know what the market is. . . . It’s a bit of guessing game.”

The orchestral concerts will take place at the Center. The chamber music programs and workshops will be held at UCI, where the musicians will be housed.

The New World Symphony gave its inaugural concert under Tilson Thomas’ direction in February. It consists of about 90 musicians between the ages of 21 and 30, recruited from 1,000 candidates. The orchestra’s executive director, Jeffrey Babcock, said Wednesday that the orchestra “is significantly beyond the level of student orchestras,” however, and compared it to “a post-doctoral residency.”

Babcock said he hopes that the orchestra can establish “a permanent summer home (in Orange County) over the next several years.” It is considering other residencies in Florida, the Southeast and parts of the Midwest, he said.

Tilson Thomas will open the series of orchestral concerts on June 30 with a program including Janacek’s Sinfonietta, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Weber’s “Konzertstuck” in F minor for piano and orchestra, with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Tilson Thomas will conduct again on July 5, when the program will include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Mahler’s “Das klagende Lied,” with the Master Chorale of Orange County and soloists soprano Faye Robinson, mezzo-soprano Janice Taylor and tenor Gary Lakes.

July 12, Mata will conduct Brahms’ Violin Concerto, with soloist Cho-Liang Lin, and other works to be announced. The final program, to be conducted by Mata, also will be announced.

The chamber music recitals will take place June 27, with Tilson Thomas playing piano; July 7, and July 14, with Lin playing violin. Programs will be announced.

All seven concerts will begin at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the festival will be available in mid-May. For further information, call (714) 642-8232.