David Ramadanoff, music director of the Vallejo Symphony since 1983, will step down after the 2014-2015 season, and will serve as Conductor Emeritus thereafter. He will continue as music director of the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra in Berkeley and of the Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra in Los Altos. Search for a new Vallejo music director will begin this fall.
Among the highlights of Ramadanoff's career: the Vallejo Symphony’s 1993 tour to Akashi, Japan, to perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; the West Coast premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s African Portraits in 1997; a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in 2008; and last season’s Brahms German Requiem. His final concert will be April 12, 2015.
Vallejo's 83rd season will have three subscription concerts, featuring guest artists duo pianists Eric Tran and Nathan Cheung; cellist Matt Allen (gold medal winner of the Carlos Prieto, Stulberg, and Gaspar Cassado competitions) in the Shostakovich concerto; and Gwendolyn Mok, piano, Craig Reiss, violin, and Richard Andaya, cello in trios by Beethoven and Brahms. Season tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets.
Orchestra members also play a series of mini-concerts in Vallejo and Benicia schools, partnering with the Vallejo City Unified School District.