John Kendall Bailey conducts Herrmann's Moby Dick, Copland, Bernstein, Barber

Venue: Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
Date: Sun April 10, 2011 3:00pm
City: Santa Rosa
Price Range: FREE
Tickets: (707) 542-8234

American Philharmonic - Sonoma County

AMERICAN PHILHARMONIC - SONOMA COUNTY
JOHN KENDALL BAILEY, guest conductor

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2011 8:00 pm
SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 2011 3:00 pm

FREE ADMISSION ($20 Suggested Donation)

Herrmann: Moby Dick (west coast premiere)
Copland: Appalachian Spring
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Bernstein: Overture to Candide

John Kendall Bailey returns to conduct the American Philharmonic-Sonoma County in the west coast premiere of famous film composer Bernard Herrmann's cantata Moby Dick (and the first US performances of the work since its 1940 world premiere by the New York Philharmonic under Sir John Barbirolli). This dramatic work features a 40-voice men's chorus and soloists Jason Detwiler (Ahab), Brian Thorsett (Ishmael), Chris Corley (Starbuck), Darron Flagg (Pip), and Carlos Aguilar.

Bernard Herrmann, whose centennial is celebrated this year, is most famous for his career in film music, which began in 1941 with Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and concluded in 1975 with Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver , and included legendary collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock ( Psycho, Vertigo, North By Northwest ), Ray Harryhausen ( The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island ) and others. In recent years, his music has crossed over into other genres, with artists like Lady Gaga, Busta Rhymes and others sampling his music for their own songs. Moby Dick was written in 1937-38, prior to Herrmann's film career, and is a neglected masterpiece of the American choral/orchestral repertoire.

The first half of the program includes some of the most popular and beloved American orchestral works by Copland, Barber, and Bernstein.