Copland Fete to Highlight Pacific’s Season

A weeklong festival devoted to the beloved American composer Aaron Copland and the West Coast premiere of Richard Danielpour’s “Voices of Remembrance”--a memorial to three slain national leaders--will highlight the Pacific Symphony’s 2000-01 season.

Music director Carl St.Clair will conduct Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and “Lincoln Portrait,” among other works, as part of a festival of films, lectures and concerts honoring the Copland centenary Nov. 12-19. Details will be announced.

Danielpour has been Pacific composer-in-residence since 1998. His “Voices of Remembrance,” a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, is dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The 25-minute work was commissioned by the National Symphony and premiered with the Guarneri Quartet and the Washington, D.C.-based orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin in January.

St.Clair will conduct the Danielpour work and eight of the 10 concerts during the season.

Guest conductors will include James Paul, recently named principal guest conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, and Patrick Summers, music director of the Houston Grand Opera and principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Opera.

Guest artists will include violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Joshua Bell and pianists Jean-Philippe Collard and Andreas Haefliger, among others.

Orchestra members--including concertmaster Raymond Kobler, principal violist Robert Becker and principal cellist Timothy Landauer--also will be among the soloists.

As previously announced, St.Clair will conduct the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass’ Choral Symphony No. 5 (“Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya”) on Oct. 13, as part of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s 2000-01 season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

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The 2000-2001 Symphony Season

* Oct. 4-5: Jean-Philippe Collard, piano: John Adams’ “Short Ride on a Fast Machine”; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2; Music from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

* Oct. 25-26: James Paul, conductor; Angela Cheng, piano: Beethoven’s “Consecration of the House” Overture and Piano Concerto No. 3; Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes; Elgar’s “In the South.”

* Nov. 15-16: Burnette Dillon, trumpet; Lelie Resnik, English horn: Copland program, including “Fanfare for the Common Man,” “An Outdoor Overture,” “Quiet City,” Suite from “The Heiress,” “Lincoln Portrait.”

* Dec. 6-7: Cecile Ousset, piano: Frank Ticheli’s “Blue Shades”; Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G; Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.”

* Jan. 24-25, 2001: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin: Tobias Picker’s “Old and Lost Rivers”; Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1; Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”).

* Feb. 7-8: Raymond Kobler, violin: Webern’s “Five Pieces”; Korngold’s Violin Concerto; Mozart’s Symphony No. 39; J. Strauss’s “Voices of Spring” and “Egyptian March.”

* March 7-8: Patrick Summers, conductor; Andreas Haefliger, piano: George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings”; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 and German Dances, K. 571; Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4 (“Mozartiana”).

* April 11-12: Timothy Landauer, cello; Los Angeles Guitar Quartet: Strauss’ “Don Quixote”; Robert Rodriguez’s “Hot Buttered Rumba”; Rodrigo’s “Concierto Andaluz”; Chabrier’s “Espana.”

* May 2-3: Pacific Chorale & Soloists to be announced: Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms”; Richard Danielpour’s “Voices of Remembrance”; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor (“The Great”).

* May 23-24: Joshua Bell, violin: Michael Daugherty’s “Route 66”; Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

Carl St.Clair will conduct all concerts except as indicated. Concerts will begin at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Concert previews will start at 7 p.m. Series tickets (good for all concerts) from $120 to $450; $60 to $245 for a five-concert series go on sale April 5. (714) 755-5799.