Symphony concert to air on NorCal Public Media Channels

April 30, 2021

In partnership with Northern California Public Media, the Santa Rosa Symphony's SRS @ Home virtual concert, recorded at the Green Music Center's Weill Hall on April 10 and premiered on YouTube on April 25, will air on NorCal Public Media channels KRCB 22 and KPJK 60 on Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 8:00 PM and Monday, May 31, 2021 at 7:30 PM, respectively. This concert, no longer available to the public, will air as the second concert in NorCal Public Media's Santa Rosa Symphony Presents series, reaching 2.8 million households in a nine-county region.

Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong's program includes works by two women who have made Pulitzer Prize history. Caroline Shaw was the youngest recipient in Music at age 30, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the Symphony’s Artistic Partner, was the first woman to win the honor in Music. SRS Concertmaster Joseph Edelberg will be featured for Zwilich's Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra.

The program includes:

  • CAROLINE SHAW: Entr’acte for String Orchestra
  • ZWILICH: Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
  • ARTURO MÁRQUEZ: Danzón No. 4 for Chamber Orchestra
  • TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade in C major for String Orchestra

The first two pieces on the program are well suited for people new to classical music. Entr’acte’s rich, vibrant themes, appeal to players and audiences. Shaw quipped that people have called it a “gateway drug for new music.” With Romance, Zwilich focused on the theme, or “tune,” over a complex progression, making it a good candidate for a classical music novice, while still enjoyable for the initiates, and especially so for fans of Edelberg.

Márquez, the son of a mariachi musician, incorporates his Mexican culture into his Cuban dance pieces, or danzóns. Danzón No. 4 exudes melancholy and nostalgia and is dedicated to two of his siblings.

Tchaikovsky wrote Serenade for Strings as a tribute to Mozart, his idol. At its premiere in 1881, the St. Petersburg audience called for an encore of the second movement. The waltz in the second movement, arranged for soprano and full orchestra, was performed as From the Heart of a Lonely Poet by Kathryn Grayson and the MGM studio orchestra for the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh. It was also used, in the ‘80s, as the startup theme for a British television station.

NorCal Public Media's KRCB broadcasts, over the air, on channel 22.1. Viewers can access it on channel 22 on Comcast Cable (high definition on channel 722), ATT U-verse, DirecTV and Dish. KRCB reaches audiences in Sonoma, Napa, Marin, San Francisco, Alameda, Solano, Contra Costa and the southern tip of Mendocino and Lake counties.

KPJK’s over-the-air channel number is 60.1. KPJK is channel 17 (717 for HD) on Comcast, 43 on ATT U-verse and DirecTV, and 60 on Dish. KPJK’s over-the-air coverage is more to the south (parts of Sonoma, Napa and Solano; all of Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties).

The last of the three-concert Santa Rosa Symphony Presents series will air the SRS @ Home May 16 concert on KRCB on June 20 at 8:00 PM and on KPJK on June 21 at 7:30 PM. The program is as follows:

  • ROSSINI: Overture to Il signor Bruschino
  • MICHAEL DAUGHERTY: Asclepius, Fanfare for Brass and Percussion
  • ZWILICH: Peanuts® Gallery for Piano and Orchestra (featuring pianist Elizabeth Dorman)
  • PAUL DOOLEY: Sonoma Strong for Orchestra
  • HAYDN: Symphony No. 45, Farewell