This season is a little more sane for me than last season, but between my work in Seattle with Harmonia and Arizona with the Sedona Symphony, there’s plenty to look forward to. (Links on the Events sidebar to the right.)
Harmonia: Baroque Bangers Vol. 1
Saturday, October 3 • First Free Methodist Church, Seattle
A smörgåsbord of the boppiest movements from Baroque cantatas, oratorios, operas, concertos, and suites.
Sedona: Mozart & Chopin
Sunday, October 18 • Sedona Performing Arts Center
Rossini, Barber Overture; Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 2; Mozart, Symphony No. 39
Harmonia: Rule, Britannia!
Saturday, November 7 • First Free Methodist Church, Seattle
Smyth, The Boatswain’s Mate Overture; Stanford, Songs of the Fleet; Elgar, “Enigma” Variations
Sedona: Simple Gifts
Sunday, November 15 • Sedona Performing Arts Center
Amrhein, Serenade; Garcia, Violin Concerto; Cowell, Saturday Night at the Firehouse; Copland, Appalachian Spring Suite
Harmonia: Messiah
Saturday, December 12 • First Free Methodist Church, Seattle
Sunday, December 13 • Bastyr Chapel, Kenmore
Sedona: Surprise Party!
Sunday, January 31 • Sedona Performing Arts Center
Boccherini, “Celebrated” Minuet and B-flat Cello Concerto; JC Bach La Clemenza di Scipione Overture; Haydn “Surprise” Symphony
Harmonia: Comrades
Saturday, February 6 • Northshore Concert Hall, Kenmore
Khachaturian Masquerade Waltz; Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2; Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5
Harmonia: Dark Choral
Saturday, February 20 • St. Stephen’s Episcopal, Seattle
Selections by Purcell, Lotti, Rachmaninoff, Schnittke, Rautavaara, Messiaen, White, and Barnhill
Sedona: Beethoven Bonanza
Sunday, March 7 • Sedona Performing Arts Center
Coriolan Overture; Piano Concerto No. 4; Symphony No. 5
Harmonia: St. John Passion
Saturday, March 20 • First Free Methodist Church, Seattle
Harmonia: The Americans
Saturday, May 1 • First Free Methodist Church, Seattle
Still, Wood Notes; Bernstein, Chichester Psalms; Thompson, Symphony No. 2
Out of curiosity, I decided to list all the works I’m going to be conducting this season in the chronological order in which they were composed. This pointed out a very peculiar circumstance for an orchestral conductor, namely that I’m not going to be performing any music written between 1831 and 1898:
| 1609 | Monteverdi, L’Orfeo (excerpts) |
| 1695 | Purcell, Abdelazar Rondo |
| 1717 | Lotti, Crucifixus a 8 |
| 1724 | Bach, St. John Passion |
| 1734 | Bach, “Jauchzet, frohlocket!” |
| 1735 | Rameau, “Forêts paisibles” |
| 1741 | Handel, Messiah |
| 1765 | Boccherini, Cello Concerto in B-flat |
| 1771 | Boccherini, Celebrated Minuet |
| 1778 | JC Bach, La Clemenza di Scipione Overture |
| 1788 | Mozart, Symphony No. 39 |
| 1791 | Haydn, Symphony No. 94 “Surprise” |
| 1806 | Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 |
| 1808 | Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 |
| 1816 | Rossini, Barber of Seville Overture |
| 1830 | Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 2 |
| 1899 | Elgar, “Enigma” Variations |
| 1910 | Stanford, Songs of the Fleet |
| 1914 | Smyth, The Boatswain’s Mate Overture |
| 1915 | Rachmaninoff, All-Night Vigil (excerpts) |
| 1931 | Thompson, Symphony No. 2 |
| 1937 | Messiaen, O Sacrum Convivium |
| 1941 | Khachaturian, Masquerade Waltz |
| 1944 | Copland, Applachian Spring Suite |
| 1944 | Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 |
| 1947 | Still, Wood Notes |
| 1948 | Cowell, Saturday Night at the Firehouse |
| 1957 | Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2 |
| 1965 | Bernstein, Chichester Psalms |
| 1972 | Rautavaara, Evening Hymn |
| 1984 | Schnittke, Three Sacred Hymns |
| 1994 | Amrhein, Serenade |
| 2021 | White, “They Lived” |
| 2025 | Garcia, Violin Concerto |
| 2026 | Barnhill, New Work |
This was not in any way by design, but perhaps it’s a complimentary to last season, when I conducted Brahms 1 and 3, Mendelssohn 3, Tchaikovsky 6, the Dvořák Te Deum, Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto, and Clara Schumann’s Three Romances, not to mention piano concerto movements by Brahms and Grieg.
But even that seems like pretty slim pickings in the Romantic department by the standards of most conductors. Am I surreptitiously and unbeknownst to myself becoming an Early-Modern guy!?
I think not; this is just how things happened to shake out this year. But I’ll have to be a tad more deliberate next season and make up for this year’s lack of Romantics. Perhaps the Ring Cycle.