Steppin' Out
Story
The California hosts a triple treat in one weekend
By Heather Zimmerman
The California Theatre is going to be ringing with a variety of festive music for an entire weekend. Over two days, the grand old theater at 345 S. First St., San Jose, hosts three distinct concerts.
The San Jose Youth Symphony Philharmonic Orchestra kicks off the weekend with "Winter Spirit" on Dec. 8, 2:30 p.m. featuring the winners of the orchestra's Philharmonic Concerto Competition and special guests San Jose Taiko. The lineup, under the baton of music director Yair Samet, includes Rossini's The Barber of Seville Overture and Ginastera's Dances From Estancia. Concerto competition winners Elaine Higashi, violin, and Kevin Cho, viola, will be featured in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat Major.
During the concert's second half, audiences will get to hear the U.S. premieres of Nai-chung Kuan's Alamuhan and Geongyong Lee's Variations on a Korean Peasant Song. San Jose Taiko will join the orchestra for performances of two of their own works by company co-founders P.J. and Roy Hirabayashi and Kaoru Wada's Folkloric Dance Suite for Orchestra.
Tickets are $5-$15. 408.885.9220
or www.sjys.org.
Symphony Silicon Valley is next up on the California's stage, on Dec. 8, 8 p.m. and Dec. 9, 2:30 p.m., with "Pictures at an Exhibition," named after the colorful Mussorgsky work, which concludes the program. Guillermo Figueroa, music director of the New Mexico Symphony and the Puerto Rico Symphony and a new face at the podium for Symphony Silicon Valley, conducts. The program also includes contemporary composer Roberto Sierra's lively Fandangos and Fauré's Elegy. Top cellist Gary Hoffman, who appeared earlier this year with Symphony Silicon Valley in a well-received performance, returns to solo in Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor.
Tickets are $37-$73. 408.286.2600 or www.symphonysiliconvalley.org.
The Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale finishes up the whirlwind weekend of music with "Carols in the California," a program of holiday music, on Dec. 9, 7 p.m., conducted by chorale director Elena Sharkova. "Carols" includes Christmas favorites, classic carols and contemporary tunes, with the centerpiece of Ariel Ramirez's Nuestra Navidad, a Christmas song cycle inspired by Argentinean folk music. The performance features music on the California Theater's massive Wurlitzer organ and accompaniment by members of Symphony Silicon Valley.
Tickets are $26-$36. 408.286.2600 or www.symphonysiliconvalley.org.