Pianist Berenika Plays Chopin Feb. 13-15. World Premiere by Behzad Ranjbaran also on program

The Santa Rosa Symphony honors the 200th birthday of two classical masters by presenting Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony and Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Wells Fargo Center on February 13, 14 and 15. In addition, music director Bruno Ferrandis leads the orchestra in a world premiere by award-winning contemporary composer Behzad Ranjbaran, who is currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School. He has been hailed as “a master of the orchestra” by the Dallas Morning News and his pieces have been described as having “radiant luminescence” by the Washington Post.
The Chopin concerto will be performed by Polish-born, rising star pianist Berenika, making her Santa Rosa Symphony debut. Hailed in Warsaw as a “gentle genius...who plays like a woman possessed,” Berenika won her first competition at age nine and has been a Leonard Bernstein Fellow at Tanglewood, winner of the Arthur W. Foote prize at Harvard, the John Knowles Paine Fellowship and the Canada Council for the Arts award. Full bio here. Berenika’s recording of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with Sinfonietta Cracovia will be available for purchase at the concert; the artist will sign CDs at intermission.

Behzad Ranjbaran’s world-premiere composition is titled “Mithra” and, according to the composer, was inspired by an ancient Persian mythology celebrated in pre-Islamic and Zoroastrian period (about 3000 years ago). This is the Santa Rosa Symphony’s seventh season participating in the Magnum Opus project, one of the largest commissioning projects of new symphonic works in the United States. Ranjbaran will join Maestro Ferrandis in the pre-concert talks at 7 p.m. on Saturday and Monday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Ferrandis noted, “Behzad is a modern composer but he writes in a style that is very neo-Romantic, very lyrical. He is a storyteller, who incorporates the ancient myths of Iran.”

• Venue: Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
• Date: Sat February 13, 2010 8:00pm
• City: Santa Rosa
• Price Range: $28-55
• Tickets: 707-546-8742

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