Tucson’s classical music stages are hopping this weekend with a season opener, a series opener and an encore concert from one of the country’s leading chamber ensembles.
SASO season opener
Globe-trotting conductor Linus Lerner is back at the podium leading the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra in its 2023-24 season opener this weekend.
Lerner, who also is music director of the Rio Grande do Norte Symphony Orchestra and Gramado Symphony Orchestra in his native Brazil, will lead SASO in a concert of works that includes a new piece celebrating George Gershwin’s iconic “Rhapsody in Blue.”
“Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue” was conceived by pianist Jeffrey Biegel, who brought in composer Peter Boyer to pen the 17-minute work for piano and orchestra.
Biegel will perform the piece with SASO at its concerts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at SaddleBrooke’s DesertView Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Drive; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 7575 N. Paseo del Norte on Tucson’s northwest side.
SASO’s “Gershwin, Boyer and Rosauro” concert also includes Gershwin’s Overture to “Funny Face;” Rosauro’s Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra featuring Dorothy Vanek Youth Concerto winner Campbell Stewart; and Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture” arranged by Robert Russell Bennett.
Tickets for SaddleBrooke are $30 through dvpac.net. For Tucson, tickets are $25 at the door or in advance at sasomusic.org.
World premiere highlights TSO concert
Tucson Symphony Orchestra opens its MasterWorks chamber series with the world premiere of a piece the orchestra co-commissioned from Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.
This weekend’s “Copland’s Appalachian Spring” concert, part of the TSO’s ¡Celebración Latina! series, is bookended by 20th-century Spanish composer María Teresa Prieto’s symphonic poem “Chichén Itzá” and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” suite.
Higdon’s “Cold Mountain” Suite, co-commissioned by TSO and a consortium of 36 other orchestras, is based on Higdon’s 2015 opera “Cold Mountain.” The suite borrows music from the opera and includes music Higdon wrote specifically for the suite, according to press materials.
Higdon is no stranger to Tucson. She was here in January 2022 when Tucson Desert Song Festival premiered her “Summertime Music,” a piece commissioned by the song festival. Arizona Friends of Chamber Music commissioned Higdon to write a string quartet for the Tokyo String Quartet that premiered during the 2006 Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival.
TSO is one of 34 orchestras to perform "Cold Mountain" Suite.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. Tickets are $50-$66 through tucsonsymphony.org.
Jerusalem Quartet playing Tucson encore
The Jerusalem Quartet made good on its pandemic-postponed 2020 concert with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in October 2021.
Two years later, the ensemble, largely regarded as one of the finest chamber groups in America, is coming back to open the Friends evening concert series on Wednesday, Oct. 11.
The group will perform string quartets from Haydn (No. 5 E-flat Major), Brahms (No. 3 B-flat Major) and Shostakovich (No. 2 in A major) beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave.
Tickets are $45, $12 for students through arizonachambermusic.org or at the door. It’s $45 to stream the concert.
