Conejo Comeback

It was five years ago that the New West Symphony became the newest symphonic force in Southern California, forged as a bold merger between the Conejo Symphony and the Ventura Symphony, each with roughly three decades behind it.

The Ventura Symphony, still mourned by some, hasn’t been heard from since, although an orchestra calling itself the Channel Islands Symphony made valiant efforts to regroup with musicians displaced in the merger process.

But squirming into a new life and a new entity, the revived Conejo Valley Symphony, led by Thousand Oaks resident Howard Sonstegard, started performing again in January 1996, an upstart with a long history.

“Conejo Valley Symphony is technically a new entity, a new corporation,” said Bonnie Boss, executive director. “We have a close tie to the Conejo Symphony which is philosophical. Both Howard Sonstegard and myself were staff members of that orchestra and worked closely with its conductor, Elmer Ramsey.”

This Saturday, this “other” symphony starts its fourth full season of concerts in a new venue, the Calvary Community Auditorium in Westlake Village. It’s an expansive hall with 2,900 seats, making it the largest in the county.

Later in the season, the symphony will perform twice in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Kavli Theatre, home of the New West Symphony. In addition to a Christmas concert in December at the Civic Arts Plaza, it will join forces in that hall with Los Robles and Ventura County master chorales to perform Beethoven’s grand “Missa Solemnis” in March.

This Saturday’s concert, punningly dubbed “Czech Mate,” will feature music by that Czech who loved America, Dvorak: the “Slavonic Dances” and Symphony No. 8 in G Minor. Also on the program will be Smetana’s overture to the “Bartered Bride,” and an Adagio by Janacek.

DETAILS

Conejo Valley Symphony at 8 p.m. Saturday at Calvary Community Auditorium, 5495 Via Rocas, Westlake Village; $25; 241-7270.

Symphonic News, cont.: Meanwhile, up the coast, the Santa Barbara Symphony begins its season Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the picturesque Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara. It happens that Dvorak kicks off the program, and the season, in Santa Barbara, but the subtitle “From Bohemia to Broadway” covers the range of music, including Sibelius, Leonard Bernstein, Libbey Larsen’s “Overture for the End of a Century” and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, to be performed by soloist Jon Nakamatsu.

This is the first of seven concerts in Santa Barbara this season, concluding, coincidentally, with Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” in May. The symphony’s conductor, Gisele Ben-Dor, has been building a sterling reputation in various parts of the globe of late, and concurrently becoming a champion of music from Latin America.

The Santa Barbara Symphony’s debut recording came out last year, of music by the late, great Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. Also in 1998, Ben-Dor conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a recording of music by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera.

In the most intriguing and unconventional program of the upcoming Santa Barbara Symphony season, the Uruguay native will continue the Latin American trend in January with a performance of Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos’ epic symphony “Amerindia.”

That piece will be recorded as the orchestra’s second CD project.

Doomsayers notwithstanding, orchestral life, it appears, is alive and kicking in the region.

DETAILS

Santa Barbara Symphony, 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Arlington Theater, 1317 State St. in Santa Barbara; $18-$40; 898-9386.

Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com