Longtime Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Lauren Roth made her debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra last month after winning the assistant concertmaster position.
That means she’s taking a sabbatical this season from the concertmaster role she’s had for 11 years with the TSO.
But she returns this weekend to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto to open the orchestra’s Masterworks series. Performances are at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6, at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.
TSO Concertmaster Lauren Roth, left, rejoins Music Director José Luis Gomez and the orchestra for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto this weekend.
In an email interview in August, before she joined her TSO colleague cellist Juan David Mejia and Nogales-born pianist Evan Kory for a St. Andrew’s Bach Society recital, Roth would not comment on the leave except to say that it didn’t mean farewell.
“Being on sabbatical is only that, I am on a sabbatical,” she said, adding that she was looking forward to joining TSO Music Director José Luis Gomez and her TSO colleagues for Beethoven’s concerto.
“It’s one of the most incredible pieces ever written, and I get to perform it with my own orchestra,” she said
Lauren Roth is taking a sabbatical from the Tucson Symphony Orchestra this season, but she returns this weekend to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.
In an item posted on the TSO website, Roth said it was a “weighty decision” to take the season-long sabbatical.
“I feel very attached to the organization and the Tucson community,” she wrote. “Maestro Gomez continues to lift the level of the orchestra and plan exciting programs that expose us to new works and new collaborations. I will miss making music regularly with the TSO in the upcoming season.”
The orchestra and Roth have been planning the Beethoven for years, Roth said, adding that she is “thrilled to share this sublime music with an orchestra and audience I hold so dear.”
The Beethoven anchors a program that opens with Spanish composer Antonio Sarrier’s Sinfonia in D and includes Schubert’s early Symphony No. 3 in D major, which he composed when he was barely 18. The piece, like his other early symphonies, was unpublished in his lifetime.
Tickets are $50-$96 through tucsonsymphony.org or by calling 520-882-8585.
