Pasadena Symphony Celebrates 75 Seasons

The Pasadena Symphony’s 75th-anniversary season will include eight concerts plus a special benefit event featuring an appearance of the fictional character P.D.Q. Bach. The inventor of P.D.Q. Bach, U.S. composer Peter Schickele, will be in residence with the orchestra for the season, and three of his serious works, including the world premiere of his Viola Concerto, will be played during the season, Oct. 12 through May 10, 2003.

Music Director Jorge Mester, leading the orchestra for the 18th consecutive year, will conduct all nine concerts. Among the soloists will be violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (May 10, 2003) and Philip Quint (Jan. 18), and two pianists, the British musician Howard Shelley (Dec. 14) and the young Finn, Paavali Jumppanen (March 8, 2003).

Mester will conduct a new production of “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,” based on Moliere’s comedy, with incidental music by Richard Strauss, Nov. 9. John de Lancie will oversee the semi-staged production. The benefit concert “P.D.Q. Bach vs. Pasadena” concert is scheduled March 29, 2003.