On Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 2:30 p.m., at the DeBartolo performing Arts Center, the South Bend Symphony will present the first June H. Edwards Chamber Series concert of the new year: “Tsung Yeh Conducts Mozart.” The recently retired Music Director, and now Conductor Laureate, Tsung Yeh will lead the orchestra once again in a vibrant program.  Scott Metlicka, Principal Piccolo of the South Bend Symphony, will be featured as the soloist on Liebermann’s thrilling Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra.

After conducting the festive family-favorite Home for the Holidays program in December, Conductor Laureate Tsung Yeh will return to the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center stage.  Maestro Yeh has hand-selected the works on this program for their poignancy in the classical world and the familiar themes that run throughout.  The concert will open with Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni, followed by a lyrical, expressive concerto for piccolo composed by Lowell Leibermann, which fittingly features a direct excerpt from the closing work of the program, Mozart’s famous Symphony No. 40.

Scott Metlicka, SBSO Principal Piccolo, performs across the Midwest as Principal Flutist for the Wisconsin Philharmonic and Milwaukee’s Skylight Theatre; he is also a member of the Elgin and Rockford Symphonies.  Scott will perform Liebermann’s Piccolo Concerto, which was commissioned by acclaimed flutist Jan Gippo and the National Flute Association.  Liebermann writes that “… I was eager to stress the lyrical and expressive qualities of an instrument which is too often stereotyped as being useful only for brilliant and ornamental flourishes.”  The three movements of this work explore each of these qualities in a whirlwind of emotion.

Overture to Don Giovanni, is one of Mozart’s best-loved operas, will open the performance.  The SBSO musicians, led by Tsung Yeh, will lead the audience through comedy and tragedy on Don Giovanni’s journey.  One of Mozart’s last and most popular works, Symphony No. 40, will close the program.

This concert is made possible by the generosity of Series Sponsor Jack M. Champaigne, and Concert Sponsors Loren and Gloria Daily.

Tickets are $25 and are on sale at The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center Box Office, by phone at 574-631-2800 or online at www.performingarts.nd.edu.  The DeBartolo Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.  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.