Pasadena, CA – Music Director David Lockington and The Pasadena Symphony open their 2015-2016 Singpoli Classics Series with Dvořák’s New World Symphony on October 10, 2015 at Ambassador Auditorium with matinee and evening performances at 2:00pm and 8:00pm. Audiences will delight in Dvořák’s most popular symphonic work. The orchestra will be joined by 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner – violinist Bella Hristova in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts’ gorgeously sonorous Violin Concerto. These exhilarating performances kick off a newly expanded 6-concert Classics Series to celebrate the Pasadena Symphony’s 88th season as the premiere destination for live symphonic music in the Pasadena region.

Pasadena’s most anticipated opening night of the concert season will showcase Bulgarian violinist Bella Hristova performing the west coast premiere of Kevin Puts’ Violin Concerto. Critically acclaimed for a richly colored, harmonic and freshly melodic musical voice, Puts has been hailed as one of the most important composers of his generation, winning the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music. Hristova’s rendition of his lyrically beautiful Violin Concerto promises to exhilarate audiences with the passionate and powerful command of her instrument, which The New York Times has praised as having “a lovely, often soaring tone.”

The elegant evening will finish with the orchestra’s performance of Dvořák’s New World Symphony. One of the most powerful of all symphonies, Dvořák’s masterpiece is a tribute to the American spirit, having been written during the composer’s time living in New York. Classical audiences are eagerly anticipating David Lockington’s exhilarating rendition of this monumental composition, which cemented Dvořák’s reputation as a world-renowned composer.

To learn more about the works being performed, join us for Insights – a free pre-concert dialogue with David Lockington regarding the historical backgrounds of the composers and a behind-the-scenes discussion about our guest performers. Insights begins one hour prior to each performance. The Pasadena Symphony provides a socially vibrant experience specially designed for the music lover, the social butterfly or a date night out, and the inner epicurean in us all.

Celebrate opening night in style in the luxurious Sierra Auto Symphony Lounge, yet another addition to the delightful and elegant concert experience the Pasadena Symphony offers. A posh setting at Ambassador Auditorium’s beautiful outdoor plaza, audiences enjoy uniquely prepared menus for both lunch and dinner at each concert from Claud &Co, fine wines by Michero Family Wines, plus music before the concert and during intermission. Six-concert subscription packages start at $180, single tickets start at $35 and may be purchased online at www.pasadenasymphonypops.org or by calling (626) 793-7172.

IF YOU GO:

What: The Pasadena Symphony presents Dvořák’s New World Symphony. – When: Saturday, October 10 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Where: Ambassador Auditorium | 131 South St. John Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105 – Cost: Tickets start at $35.00

Parking: Valet parking is available on Green Street for $15. General parking is available in two locations: next to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave) at the covered parking structure for $10 and directly across the street at the Wells Fargo parking structure (entrance on Terrace at Green St). ADA parking is located at the above-ground parking lot adjacent to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave.) for $10. Parking purchased onsite is cash only.

Sierra Auto Symphony Lounge: Located on the plaza at Ambassador Auditorium. Opens at 12:30 pm before the matinee and 6 pm before the evening performance.

Pre-Concert Discussion: Pre-concert discussions with David Lockington begins one hour before curtain and is available to all ticket holders at no cost.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

David Lockington

Over the past thirty-five years, David Lockington has developed an impressive conducting career in the United States. A native of Great Britain, he served as the Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony from January 1999 to May 2015, and is currently the orchestra’s Conductor Laureate. He has held the position of Music Director with the Modesto Symphony since May 2007 and in March 2013, Mr. Lockington was appointed to the same position with the Pasadena Symphony. He also has a close relationship with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain where he is currently the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor, and beginning with the 15/16 season he will be one of three Artistic Partners with the Northwest Sinfonietta in Tacoma, Washington.

In addition to his current posts, since his arrival to the United States in 1978 Mr. Lockington has also held additional positions with American orchestras, including serving as Assistant Conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and Opera Colorado and Assistant and Associate Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In May 1993 he accepted the position of Music Director of the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, assumed the title of Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in September 1995 and was Music Director of the Long Island Philharmonic for the 96/97 through 99/2000 seasons.

Mr. Lockington’s guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Saint Louis, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon and Phoenix symphonies; the Rochester and Louisiana Philharmonics; and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Internationally, he has conducted the Northern Sinfonia in Great Britain, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the China Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in Beijing and Taiwan and led the English Chamber Orchestra on a tour in Asia. Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include appearances with the New Jersey, Indianapolis, Vancouver, Utah, Pacific, Colorado, Nashville, San Diego, Syracuse, Edmonton, Alabama, Columbus and Kansas City symphonies, the Florida and Louisville Orchestras, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the Buffalo and Calgary Philharmonics. Mr. Lockington’s summer festival activities include appearances at the Grand Teton, Colorado Music, Interlochen, Chautauqua and Eastern Music festivals.

David Lockington began his career as a cellist and was the Principal with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Cambridge, Mr. Lockington came to the United States on a scholarship to Yale University where he received his Master’s degree in cello performance and studied conducting with Otto Werner Mueller. He was a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and served as assistant principal cellist for three years with the Denver Symphony Orchestra before turning to conducting.

Bella Hristova

Acclaimed for her passionate, powerful performances, beautiful sound, and compelling command of her instrument, violinist Bella Hristova is a young musician with a growing international career as a soloist and recording artist. The Strad has praised, “Every sound she draws is superb,” and The Washington Post noted that she is “a player of impressive power and control.” Recipient of a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ms. Hristova’s 2014-2015 season features a mix of concerto, recital and chamber music performances, as well as educational outreach activities. She showcases her wide-ranging repertoire this season, as she performs ten different concertos, from Bernstein and Corigliano to Prokofiev and Sibelius, as well as the world premiere of an unaccompanied work by JoanTower. She performs chamber music with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at the Cactus Pear Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Skaneateles Festival, and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Hristova appears in encore recital performances in the Young Concert Artists Series at Merkin Concert Hall and at the Kennedy Center.

Ms. Hristova has performed extensively as soloist with orchestra including with Pinchas Zukerman and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, with the New York String Orchestra under Jaime Laredo at Carnegie Hall, as well as with the Mississippi Symphony, City of London Sinfonia, Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Korea’s Cheongju Symphony Orchestra, at the Cerritos Center for the Arts, at Free For All at Town Hall, at the Shanghai International Music Festival, and at Seoul National University. Her most recent recording, Bella Unaccompanied (A.W. Tonegold Records), features works for solo violin by Corigliano, Kevin Puts, Piazzolla, Milstein and J. S. Bach. A sought-after chamber musician, Ms. Hristova performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at many music festivals including the Young Concert Artists Festival in Tokyo, the Grand Teton Festival, the Brevard Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, the Mainly Mozart Festival, Music from Angel Fire, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival. She has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. In addition to the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Bella Hristova is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, and Laureate of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. She made her New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at Merkin Concert Hall and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and at the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. For three seasons, she has been honored with the Gordon and Harriet Greenfield Foundation Artist Management Fellowship of YCA.

As a result of winning the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Ms. Hristova made a critically acclaimed concert tour of New Zealand, and a similarly acclaimed CD of solo violin works by the Belgian virtuoso Charles de Bériot (Naxos). Music Web International praised her first recording, “…this disc is an absolute winner… …The musical diversity of these pieces is a delight. None of which would count for much if they were not played with the extraordinary virtuosity and musical maturity of Bella Hristova. … Hristova combines jaw-dropping technical prowess with real style.”

Born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985 to Russian and Bulgarian parents, Ms. Hristova began violin studies at the age of six. At twelve, she participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2003, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with Ida Kavafian (YCA Alumna) and studied chamber music with Steven Tenenbom. She received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at IndianaUniversity in 2010. Ms. Hristova plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.