Music from “West Side Story,” Mendelssohn’s “Scottish Symphony,” Brahms’ “Requiem”: The Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra’s 91st season of concerts is being unveiled now with featured soloists who started in Clallam County and went on to be world-traveling musicians.
Twelve performances are set, starting with Family Pops in September. That’s when Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” make their appearance. This concert also features “Tubby the Tuba,” the comic musical story featuring narrator Pat Owens and tuba soloist Tyler Benedict.
Benedict, the Sequim City Band director, is one of four locally-grown professional musicians stepping into the spotlight this season, Port Angeles Symphony conductor and artistic director Jonathan Pasternack noted.
Another is violist Cheryl Landry Swoboda, originally from Port Angeles, who now lives in Germany and performs across Europe.
Cellist Traci Winters Tyson, who also began her musical career here, will be the featured soloist with the symphony in February. That concert, in addition, will include the world premiere of a musical work by local composer-cellist Jesse Ahmann.
All six full symphony orchestra concerts, including “Family Pops,” will have same-day dress rehearsals at 10 a.m., and all will be open to the public.
The morning rehearsals and evening concerts take place at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave. in Port Angeles.
The Chamber Orchestra performances are held at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E.Lopez Ave., Port Angeles, on Friday evenings and at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave., Sequim, on Saturday nights.
Attendees of ages 18 and under are admitted free with a ticketed patron to the morning dress rehearsals and to the Chamber Orchestra and Family Pops concerts.
“I am absolutely delighted and grateful to be preparing for the 2023-2024 season,” said Pasternack. In this, his ninth season leading the Port Angeles Symphony, a long-held hope is coming to fruition with the performance of Brahms’ “Requiem.”
The May 4 concert, featuring choristers from around the region, “is a dream project,” he said.
This season, subscriptions offer music lovers significant savings on tickets, Pasternack added. Concert packages provide discounts of up to 35 percent off single-ticket prices.
Information on concert programming, the featured soloists and ticket packages is included in the season brochure. To receive one, patrons can email their physical mailing address to pasymphony@olypen.com or call the symphony office at 360-457-5579.
Get more information at portangelessymphony.org.
Symphony’s lineup
The Port Angeles Symphony’s 2023 season includes:
Sept. 30: “Family Pops,” with music from the movies and Broadway, marches and “Tubby the Tuba”
Oct. 13-14: Pianist Paige Roberts Molloy and violinist Elisa Barston return for an all-Brahms duo recital in both Sequim and Port Angeles
Nov. 4: Pianist Marika Bournaki plays Robert Schumann’s piano concerto, followed by Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique Symphony”
Dec. 9: Guitarist Colin Davin plays Rodrigo’s “Fantasia para un Gentilhombre,” while this holiday concert also features festive selections, a new medley by Sequim’s Al Harris, and the return of the audience sing-along
Jan. 19-20: Cheryl Landry Swoboda returns for Schubert’s “Arpeggione,” and Jesse Ahmann’s composition premieres with the Port Angeles Symphony Chamber Orchestra in Sequim and Port Angeles
Feb. 17: Traci Winters Tyson plays Bruch and Popper, followed by the orchestra’s Mendelssohn “Scottish Symphony”
March 23: Violinist Charlotte Marckx rejoins the Symphony for an evening of Prokofiev, Hindemith and Respighi
May 4: Brahms’ German “Requiem” stars the Port Angeles Symphony Chorus and soloists Kristin Vogel and David Meyer
May 17-18: The Port Angeles Symphony Chamber Orchestra, with soloist Paige Roberts Molloy, plays Shostakovich plus Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and other works.
