Article from the SJ about the SCO

Orchestra announces 2008-09 season lineup

A performance in Albany is also planned for Sept.
RON COWANStatesman Journal

April 6, 2008
Salem Chamber Orchestra will spice its 2008-09 season with international soloists and a local Grammy Award winner. The orchestra also will do its first Albany concert, part of an opening weekend pair of concerts in two cities. Last year, it journeyed to Monmouth. The season will be the 24th for the orchestra and the fifth for music director/conductor Hekun Wu, who continues draw on his musical connections to find soloists.

The season will open with a gala concert-regional outreach concert Sept. 20-21 featuring New York-based musician Xiao-Fen Min, performing on the pipa, a Chinese traditional string instrument. Xiao-Fen Min, also a vocalist, performs traditional Chinese and classic music and jazz. She worked with Björk on the song "I See Who You Are" on Björk's album "Volta."
She will be performing a contemporary piece, Tan Dun's Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa. Tan Dun did the Grammy-winning score for the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Also on the program is Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, and Dvorak's "Czech Suite, D Major, op. 39."

The first concert will be at the Historic Elsinore Theatre in Salem, with the second at the performing arts center at Linn-Benton Community College, Albany.

"It seemed like a good opportunity," executive director James Boyd said.

Albany doesn't have its own orchestra, and it could potentially provide a new audience, he said.

The Masterworks Series will open Nov. 1-2 in Hudson Hall on the Willamette University campus in Salem with flutist Molly Barth, flutist and a new faculty member. She was a member of Eighth Blackbird, whose recording "Strange Imaginary Animals" won a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music category. Barth will perform on a program featuring Britten's "Simple Symphony," Vivaldi's Concerto for Piccolo in C Major (with Barth) and Shostakovitch's Chamber Symphony for Strings, op. 110a.

The second program in the Masterworks Series will be Feb. 14-15, 2009, at Hudson Hall and features Shanghai pianist and conductor Xu Zhong, a former colleague of Wu, who is from Shanghai. Xu Zhong is a founding member and artistic director of the China Shanghai International Piano Competition and executive artistic director of Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. He won the first prize at the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
The all-Mozart program will feature Xu Zhong conducting the overture to "Don Giovanni" and performing and conducting Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 and Concerto No. 27 in B flat Major.

The third Masterworks program will be April 18-19 at Hudson Hall, featuring Russion cellist Tanya Remenikova. The program features Grieg's "Peer Gynt," Suite. No. 1, op 46; Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major; and Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor ("Unfinished").

The "Gift of Music" Family Concert will move from February to March 15, 2009, to avoid conflicting with school events. The program will feature Poulenc's "Babar the Elephant," will soloists including the Connie Fritz Memorial Concerto Competition winner and the Willamette University Solo and Aria Competition winner.

Most concerts will be at 7:30 p.m. the first day and 3 p.m. the second. The Family Concert will be at 2 and 4 p.m. the same day.

The Connie Fritz competition will be held at 3 p.m. Nov. 23 in Hudson Hall and will be open to music students residing in Marion and Polk counties, up to and including high school.
Hekun Wu conducts all but the February programs.

Season ticket information is available now, with individual tickets on sale in July. Ticket prices will not change, although all seats will be reserved at the Elsinore concert, rather than general admission.