Music Director Candidate José-Luis Novo to lead SBSO in a program featuring Percussion Pioneer Lisa Pegher

On Saturday, January 28^th at 8:00 pm at the Morris Performing Arts Center, the South Bend Symphony will perform its first Jack M. Champaigne Masterworks Series concert of the New Year, and welcomes its third Music Director Candidate José-Luis Novo. As the SBSO’s season-long Music Director Search reaches its mid-point, robust audiences continue to enjoy the unique conducting styles of each Candidate and eagerly await José-Luis’ performance.

One of Spain’s most promising conductors, and the SBSO’s third Music Director Candidate, José-Luis Novo currently serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and recently concluded an impressive thirteen-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic in New York State. Novo, winner of an ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, is also well-known as a dynamic educator of young musicians.

José-Luis Novo hand-selected Maurice Ravel’s colorful Mother Goose Suite to open January’s concert. The Suite is comprised of five pieces, each invoking a vivid moment from selected fairy tales. The program also includes Richard Danielpour’s The Wounded Healer, a piece written specifically for guest percussionist Lisa Pehger. The program concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s fantastical Scheherazade, a beloved composition based on Arabian Nights.

Percussionist and composer Lisa Pegher recently premiered Danielpour’s new percussion concerto The Wounded Healer, and was hailed as “an ideal interpreter of the work.” Pegher has also written extensive essays on the four healers depicted in the concerto – The Prophet, The Trickster, The Shaman, and The Conjurer. She has been a pioneer in bringing percussion to the front of the stage.

This concert is made possible by the generosity of Series Sponsor, Jack M. Champaigne and Concert Sponsor, JPD Controls.

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 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.