Presented by:

Auburn Drug Company

The Art of Real Food Cookbook

Sponsored by:

Montgomery for Supervisor

Joanne Valentine

First Northern Bank

Along with Guest Conductor Peter Jaffe (Music Director and Conductor with the Stockton Symphony), the orchestra will present all the glories of Rachmaninov’s magnificent 2nd Symphony, following its spectacular performance last season in Auburn, and combined choirs including the Slavic Chorale, Music in the Mountains Chorale, Sierra College Choir, William Jessup University Choir and Apollo Chorus join for Borodin’s thrilling Polovetsian Dances.

Sunday, 29 April, 3:00 p.m.

Price: $40 General / $20 Student

Click here to link to their live stream!

Now, the symphony has added a memorial concert to its season. The concert will play at 2 p.m. Sunday March 11. Tickets to the free concert were “sold out” a day after their release, with music lovers lining up to pay tribute to Goodwin. Pete Nowlen, concert band director at the University of California, Davis, and opera orchestra conductor at Sacramento State University, has volunteered to lead the orchestra March 11 in honor of Goodwin, who he had known for more than 20 years.

“The opportunity to pay tribute to Michael is really wonderful,” Nowlen said, “to collaborate with the orchestra to really build a deserving event, a suitable tribute.”

Forging ahead

Those unable to get tickets to the memorial concert can still see the symphony in action this month for their Masterworks Concert Three, “Romantic Extravaganza.” With performances March 17 and 18, the concert features romantic works from Edvard Grieg (Symphonic Dance No. 1), Pyotr Tchai-kovsky (“Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy Overture) and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (“Capriccio Espagnol”). The concert features solo-ist Pip Clarke, a renowned English violinist who will play a concerto composer Lee Actor created for her.

The 2012 season was to include an evening with Actor, but that event, originally scheduled for the same weekend as Goodwin’s memorial, has been canceled.

Clarke, who lives in Los Angeles, describes the concerto as “very grand and powerful, and has a big orchestral sound to it as well.” Clarke performs throughout the U.S. and the world, both at recitals and with symphonies.

“I never actually met Michael, but it’s a time to be very sensitive to people, because I know he was very much loved up there, and for a very long time,” Clarke said. “It’s great that they’re still doing the concert.”

Guest conducting for Masterworks Concert Three is Emily Ray, conductor of the Mission Chamber Orchestra of San Jose, Santa Clara University Orchestra conductor and a piano teacher at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. She has worked with Clarke many times before – in fact, it was the Mission Chamber Orchestra that commissioned Actor’s concerto for Clarke.

“I really like the program that Michael put together,” Ray said. “There are a lot of wonderful pieces, and it’s going to make a beautiful program.”

The music lives on

Russian-born pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski, the soloist for Goodwin’s last concert in Auburn, has volunteered to return for the March 11 memorial concert, where he will play a piece by Mozart.

Soukhovetski said he was shocked and saddened at the death of his friend of eight years, and felt it was appropriate to come pay his respects through the music they both loved.

“Musicians are strange folk, I suppose, because where most people would find just grief and sadness, music helps to lift you out of that, so it is very emotionally charged,” Soukhovetski said. “The musical spirit of Michael will live on forever, of course, in the memory of everyone who heard him play and conduct and perform, and in the recordings that he left behind. I don’t think there is a better way to celebrate his legacy than to give a performance. It’s sad, but it’s also bittersweet.”

Reach Krissi Khokhobashvili at krissik@goldcountrymedia.com.

——————————————————————————-

“Romantic Extravaganza”

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 17, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 18

Where: Placer High School Theater, 123 Agard Street, Auburn

Tickets: $30-$45 (student discounts available) at www.auburnsymphony.com

Info: (530) 823-6683

(Courtesy Keith Sutter) Maestro Michael Goodwin during rehearsal with the Auburn Symphony. A memorial concert for Goodwin begins at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The memorial concert for Auburn Symphony Maestro Michael Goodwin will be broadcast live on Auburn Community Television beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 11.

TouchDown Productions of Grass Valley has stepped up to provide the technical equipment for the broadcast, which will be screened at the State Theater, 985 Lincoln Way, Auburn, and on WaveCable Channel 20.

Goodwin, who conducted the symphony for 17 years, died in a car crash in February. The memorial concert will be conducted by Goodwin’s colleague Pete Nowlen and will feature pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski, the soloist at Goodwin’s last concert in Auburn.

The free memorial concert at the Placer High School auditorium reached capacity less than 24 hours after tickets were released. In order to accommodate the demand to participate in this memorial, the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center will open the State Theater for the free live broadcast.

Tickets are required, with a very limited number available. Call the symphony office at (530) 823-6683 to reserve.

Sunday, March 11th, 2:00 p.m.
Placer High School Auditorium
(General Admission, theatre doors open at 1:15 p.m.)

The concert is free, but you must have tickets.
Click here for tickets.

(Limit eight per person, please contact the office for larger groups.)

Auburn Symphony from Tim C Anderson on Vimeo.

“The entire Auburn Symphony family is shocked and saddened by this devastating news.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Michael’s family and friends and all the musicians who have had the good fortune to work with him over the years.  As we move forward, we will remember the one overriding principal that guided Michael’s work through his life:  The music must live on.”

(Our KinderKonzert will be performed as scheduled at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, 11 February in the Placer High School Auditorium as we believe Michael would have wanted.)