FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Violin virtuoso Melissa White performs Florence Price concerto March 4-5
TACOMA, Wash. – The Northwest Sinfonietta under the direction of artistic partner Yaniv Attar presents “Fate Now Conquers” on March 4 at 7:30 p.m. (Rialto Theatre, 310 S. 9th St., Tacoma) and March 5 at 2:00 p.m. (Pioneer Park Pavilion, 330 S. Meridian, Puyallup).
Carlos Simon’s Beethoven-inspired “Fate Now Conquers” opens the program. Simon drew on Beethoven’s journal reference to the famous quote from Homer’s “Iliad” - “But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share In my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit And that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.” – and the fluid harmonic structure from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, to create a five-minute ode to the uncertainties and mysteries of life.
Virtuoso American violinist Melissa White joins the orchestra to perform Florence Price’s First Violin Concerto in D Major. White was a founding member of New York’s Harlem Quartet (2006) and since has embarked on a varied solo and orchestra career that has seen her perform with the National Philharmonic, Chicago Sinfonietta, the symphonies of Richmond and Cincinnati, the Juilliard Orchestra and many others. In 2022, White made history as the concertmaster of the Recollective Orchestra, the first all-Black orchestra to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. She currently serves on the faculty at New York University and the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, New York and has been in residence with the Harlem Quartet at the Royal College of Music in London since 2016 and Montclair State University in New Jersey since 2021.
Florence Price (1887-1953) was a prolific American classical composer active during the early and middle twentieth century, with an extensive catalog of over 300 works including four numbered symphonies and four concertos. She was the first African American woman to receive national recognition as a symphonic composer and the first to have a work performed by a major symphony orchestra. The first violin concerto unperformed during the composer’s lifetime and was ‘rediscovered’ amongst Price’s papers in 2009 by violinist and academic Er-Gene Kahng and has gained momentum as a mainstay of the concerto repertoire since.
Youth concerto competition winner, violinist Seohyun Hwang, performs the first movement of W.A. Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4, K. 218 in D Major to open the second half. Hwang is a student at Skyline High School in Issaquah, Wash., is an acclaimed, expressive and mature young musician. Solo highlights have included performances with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, a fellowship with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. and others.
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 by Ludwig v. Beethoven closes the program. The Haydenesque four-movement symphony received its premiere in Vienna, Austria in 1800. The thrillingly ambiguous opening chord, which does not establish the symphony’s key, marked a heroic opening salvo for the Beethoven-the-symphonist, and immediately established him as a true genius of the form.
Tickets $22-50. Student, military and group discounts available. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit: www.nwsinfonietta.org
The Northwest Sinfnietta 2022-2023 season concludes May 20-21 with “This Land” featuring works by W.A. Mozart, Aaron Copland, Jessie Montgomery and Alberto Ginastera.
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About the Northwest Sinfonietta: The Northwest Sinfonietta was founded in 1991 by harpsichordist Kathryn Habedank and conductor Christophe Chagnard. The 35-member ensemble is the premiere chamber orchestra in the Puget Sound region and blends the intimacy of chamber music with the power of a full orchestra. In 2015, the Northwest Sinfonietta became one of the few orchestras in the world to move to an Artistic Partner model of operations, giving the musicians of the ensemble a larger role in the programming and vision for the ensemble. Learn more about the orchestra at: www.nwsinfonietta.org.