KELSEYVILLE — On Sunday, Nov. 18, the Lake County Symphony, under the sponsorship of Clear Lake Performing Arts in conjunction with Mendocino College Lake Center, will present its annual Winter Concert, this time featuring the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Symphony director John Parkinson has selected works representing a range of the styles in which Mozart worked including opera, concertos and, of course, symphonic music.
According to Parkinson whenever Mozart anchors a program, Lake County music lovers show up in large numbers. They can be well accommodated at the chosen venue, the large Student Center at Kelseyville High School.
The concert starts at 3 p.m. and admission is still just $15 for general admission, $10 for CLPA members, while young people under 18 are admitted free.
Parkinson”s choices were not easy to make considering that Mozart was proficient in virtually every style of his day. The opening number is entitled “Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail,” which translates to “The Abduction from the Seraglio.” It was Mozart”s first opera and was a resounding success throughout Europe, when it was first introduced. It featured a kidnapped heroine, her rescue from the Barbary pirates by a stalwart hero and his servant and, of course, the discovery of true love. The opera”s overture has become a classic and this will be the opening number played by the symphony.
The “Horn Concerto No. 3 in E flat” will feature soloist Darrin Michaels who, like Mozart, began his musical career at an early age, starting with the flute and then graduating through many different instruments until settling on the horn while attending San Francisco State University. This concerto is the third of four written by Mozart for his friend Joseph Leutgeb, a noted horn player. Michaels has played with most of the symphonies in the North counties and is currently teaching music in both middle school levels and at Mendocino College.
Three well-known Lake County artists will be joined by one from Healdsburg as soloists on Mozart”s “Sinfonia Concertante Quartet for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn.” They are Beth Aiken, Nick Biondo, Ann Hubbard and Randy Masselink.
Aiken is principal oboe for the Lake County Symphony and also for the Ukiah Symphony and Symphony of the Redwoods and is an accomplished chamber music player as well.
Clarinetist Nick Biondo recently retired after 30 years as a music director in public school education and has been a symphony member since its inception. Ann Hubbard, bassoon, also plays regularly with a number of orchestras and bands, including the Lake County and Ukiah symphonies, the Symphony of the Redwoods and the Mendocino College Symphonic Band.
Healdsburg resident Randy Masselink has played the horn in orchestras in Switzerland, Italy and a number of U.S. cities. He now teaches junior and senior high school music in his home town, along with playing in local orchestras, and is making his second appearance with the Lake County Symphony.
The program will conclude with the orchestra playing Mozart”s “Symphony No. 40 in G Minor,” which was written during the composer”s last years. It was one of his three final and greatest symphonies, composed in just seven weeks, with No. 40 standing out as one of his most creative works and establishing him as one of the originators of symphonic music as we know it today.
Conn Murray is past president of Clear Lake Performing Arts.
