On Saturday, December 3rd at 8:00 p.m. at the Morris Performing Arts Center, the South Bend Symphony continues the search for its new Music Director with the second Jack M. Champaigne Masterworks Series concert. On the heels of a phenomenal season-opening concert, which marked the beginning of our season-long search, as well as a very successful KeyBank Pops Series opener, audiences are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Stilian Kirov.
The SBSO’s second Music Director Candidate, Stilian Kirov is currently the Music Director of two orchestras – the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and New Jersey Symphony in C, one of America’s premier orchestras for young professional musicians. Kirov is the recipient of the 2016 Solti Foundation’s U.S. Career Assistance Award, has conducted prestigious orchestras, and collaborated with world-renowned artists around the globe.
Stilian Kirov personally selected Shostakovich’s stirring and celebratory Festive Overture to open the concert. The Festive Overture was used as a theme for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and has become a popular work for celebrations across many countries. On the second half of the concert, the SBSO will perform Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, an equally stirring work that exudes the warmth and beauty of a sunny day juxtaposed with the darkness and doubt of storm clouds.
Indiana University South Bend Professor of Music and founder of the multi-national Toradze Piano Studio, Alexander Toradze will join the South Bend Symphony and conductor Stilian Kirov to perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. International Piano Quarterly has deemed Toradze’s recording of this work as “historically the best on record,” among over 70 recordings. He will be joined by one of his students Joseph Bush, who will perform the first movement of the concerto.
This concert is made possible by the generosity of Series Sponsor Jack M. Champaigne, Concert Sponsor McDonald’s Physical Therapy, and Guest Artist Underwriter Indiana Trust.
Tickets start at $18 and are on sale at The Morris Box Office, by phone at 574-235-9190 or online at www.MorrisCenter.org. The Morris Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can also be purchased at Hammes Bookstore/Eddy Street Commons, O’Brien Recreation Center and TG Music in Goshen. Tickets for full-time students are always $8 with photo ID.
Details for the SBSO’s 2016-17 “Season of Discovery” can be found at www.southbendsymphony.org.