New Music Director Bruno Ferrandis Conducts East-Meets-West Program On January 20-22

Maya Beiser Performs Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Concerto

News Release Contact:
Sara Obuchowski, (707) 546-7097 ext 218

December 1, 2006

(SANTA ROSA, CA) – Santa Rosa Symphony’s new music director Bruno Ferrandis flies in from Paris for his second appearance this concert season at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts on January 20, 21 and 22. Dance-like qualities dominate the program, beginning with Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng’s Tibetan Swing and continuing with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from Broadway’s West Side Story. Completing the east-meets-west repertoire are Gershwin’s An American in Paris and a cello concerto from Academy Award and Grammy-winning composer Tan Dun.

The phenomenal Israeli-born cellist Maya Beiser, called “the virtuosic queen of the post-minimalist cello” by the San Francisco Chronicle, performs Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto. Beiser has worked with this composer previously in multi-media presentations of his “Antiphonal Song.” She has engaged in similar cutting-edge, cross-cultural collaborations with Chinary Ung , Osvaldo Golijov and Steve Reich, among others. Beiser has received many prestigious awards and commissions, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Fund, the Cary Charitable Trust and Meet the Composer. Her latest CD, World to Come, was released by Koch International in October 2003.

The Symphony’s board of directors named Algerian-born Bruno Ferrandis, currently of Paris, France, as music director after an intensive two-year process and with a unanimous decision of the search committee. The Symphony will be well-served by his twenty years of conducting experience, which began at Juilliard and has continued through appearances with some of the world’s great opera companies and the finest orchestras of Europe and Asia. After the January concert set, Ferrandis will return to conduct again May 17, 18 and 19. He will be in Santa Rosa permanently in the 2007-2008 season.

The January 20, 21 and 22 performances of the Santa Rosa Symphony Classical Series are underwritten by Sonne J. Pedersen and the appearance of Maestro Ferrandis is underwritten by Norma and Evert Person. Maya Beiser’s appearance is sponsored by Anderson, Zeigler, Disharoon, Gallagher & Gray.

At each of the three performances, patrons may purchase Beiser’s CDs, and she will be available to autograph them.

Concert times are Saturday and Monday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. Conversations with the Conductor begin in the main concert hall one hour prior to each concert.

The popular Discovery Series of open rehearsals continues at 2 p.m. on January 20. These concerts, priced at $10 for adults and $6 for youth, offer a sneak peek into the final rehearsal process before each concert set.

Call (707) 546-8742 for tickets or purchase tickets online at santarosasymphony.com. Tickets are also available in person at the Symphony Box Office on the first floor of the North Coast Bank building at 50 Santa Rosa Avenue, Santa Rosa, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday, Wednesdays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets may also be purchased at the door 1½ hours before each performance based on availability. Single tickets are $27-50, with student and senior discounts available. $10 Student Rush tickets (student I.D. required) can be purchased a half hour prior to curtain.