
Bernstein on Stage
John Mauceri, Conductor
New West Symphony
Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles
Dr. Joseph P. Nadeau, Artistic Director & Conductor
Women of Areté Vocal Ensemble & California Lutheran University Choir
Wyant Morton, Director
Just Announced! Suzanna Guzmán, Davis Gaines, Celena Shafer, and Casey Candebat!
Generously sponsored by Colburn Foundation
John Mauceri performance sponsored by Kathleen P. Martin
Media Sponsor Classic Event
New West Symphony Dates
Sat., November 18 at 8PM
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
Sun., November 19 at 3PM
Oxnard Performing Arts Center
VPAC partners with New West Symphony in celebrating the centenary of Leonard Bernstein with Bernstein on Stage. John Mauceri, former music director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, was once a young protégé of Leonard Bernstein. He’s known for his onstage commentary between pieces, so we can’t wait to hear him share both personal anecdotes and musical insights from the maestro himself. He’s created a concert packed with pieces from the entire canon of Bernstein’s compositions for the stage.
PROGRAM
FANCY FREE
ON THE TOWN
TROUBLE IN TAHITI
WONDERFUL TOWN
CANDIDE
WEST SIDE STORY
MASS
1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE
JOHN MAUCERI, world-renowned conductor, writer, and educator has appeared with the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, on the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood as well as at the most prestigious halls of academia.
Mr. Mauceri served as music director of the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy for three years after completing seven years as music director of Scottish Opera, and is the first American ever to have held the post of music director of an opera house in either Great Britain or Italy. He was music director of the Washington Opera (The Kennedy Center) as well as Pittsburgh Opera, and was the first music director of American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall after its legendary founding director, Leopold Stokowski, whom he assisted. For fifteen years he served on the faculty of his alma mater, Yale University, and was the chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for seven years (2006-2013).
For 18 years, Mr. Mauceri worked closely with Leonard Bernstein, conducting many of the composer’s premieres at Bernstein’s request. He remains the conductor who has had the longest musical relationship with the composer, having edited, assisted, and conducted his works—with the composer present—in Vienna, Tel Aviv, London, Paris, Glasgow, Milan, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and performed at the composer’s 60th and 70th birthday galas.
He is the Founding Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, which was created for him in 1991 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. Breaking all records at the Bowl, he conducted over 300 concerts at the 18,000-seat amphitheater with a total audience of four million people.
Deeply committed to preserving two American art forms, the Broadway musical, and Hollywood film scores, he has edited and performed a vast catalogue of restorations and first performances, and has conducted significant premieres of works by Verdi, Debussy, Hindemith, Ives, Gershwin, Stockhausen, Korngold, and Weill in concert halls and on Broadway.
Mr. Mauceri is one of the world’s most accomplished recording artists, having released over 70 audio CDs and is the recipient of Grammy, Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Billboard, Edison Klassiek, 3 Emmy Awards, 2 Diapasons d’Or, Cannes Classique, ECHO Klassik, and four Deutsche Schallplatten awards. This year, marking the 50th anniversary of his first concert, Mr. Mauceri has been honored by Yale University and received the Ditson Conducting Award in Carnegie Hall. His book, “Maestros and Their Music – The Art and Alchemy of Conducting,” has recently been published by Alfred A. Knopf.
See JohnMauceri.com for further information.
NEW WEST SYMPHONY
Founded in 1995, the New West Symphony is a professional orchestra that draws its players from the rich talent pool of professional Los Angeles-area musicians. The Symphony presents an annual Masterpiece Series concert season and provides a number of educational opportunities for local youth through its annual Symphonic Adventures concerts, its traveling Music Van, and the Harmony Project of Ventura County. For more information go to newwestsymphony.org and follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/newwestsymphony.
GAY MEN'S CHORUS OF LOS ANGELES (GMCLA)
For 39 years the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles has built an international reputation for musical excellence while remaining deeply rooted in service to the Los Angeles community. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the last important links to a glorious tradition in music,” GMCLA is one of the country’s largest male choruses with over 250 singers. GMCLA also has an extensive youth outreach program that brings a message of love, acceptance, and hope to over 50,000 students in the Los Angeles middle schools, high schools, and juvenile detention centers.
THE CAL LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY CHORAL ENSEMBLES
The Cal Lutheran University Choral Ensembles includes the Cal Lutheran University Choir, Women’s Chorale, and Areté Vocal Ensemble. The Cal Lutheran University Choir and Women’s Chorale are the premiere undergraduate choral ensembles at CLU. The ensembles have earned an enviable reputation in their home state and throughout the Western United States for their commitment to performing the finest in choral literature from all eras in their original languages. While dedicated to performing works that represent the University’s Lutheran heritage, the choirs also embrace innovative new music as well as music expressing a multi-cultural perspective.
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SUZANNA GUZMÁN, MEZZO-SOPRANO |
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DAVIS GAINES, BARITONE |
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CELENA SHAFER, SOPRANO Among Ms. Shafer's 2017/2018 appearances include Musetta in La Boheme and the Mozart Mass in C Minor for the Utah Symphony, Carmina Burana in Costa Rica, and Handel's Messiah with the Nashville Symphony. During the 2016/2017 season she sang Mahler Symphony No. 2 at the Britt Festival in Oregon, and repeated the work with the Louisville Orchestra. She returned to the Phoenix Symphony for Handel's Messiah, sang Mozart arias and Carmina Burana with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and performed Marzelline in Beethoven's Leonore with the Washington Concert Opera. |
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CASEY CANDEBAT, TENOR |