PORT ANGELES — As this season finishes with two performances on Saturday, the Port Angeles Symphony is announcing a full lineup of 13 concerts in its 90th anniversary season to begin this fall.
The Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave., is the venue for the full-orchestra concerts including those set for Saturday with guest pianist Alexander Tutunov. The 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. performances are sold out, but some tickets may become available to patrons on the waiting list. To be added to that list, email PAsymphony@olypen.com or phone 360-457-5579.
“Alex has frequently been a visiting soloist here over some three decades or so, and will perform Rachmaninoff’s most beloved work with us, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor. It is one of his specialties, and I can’t wait,” said Jonathan Pasternack, conductor and music director of the symphony.
Elgar’s Enigma Variations are also on Saturday’s program — especially fitting for this season, said violinist and concertmaster Jory Noble. In this piece, each variation represents one of Elgar’s friends. Each is individual and beautiful, Noble added.
“In the last variation, he has all the friends together in a boisterous, jovial, joyous variation, as if they are celebrating being together. It’s exactly how it feels to be making music with these beautiful musicians after missing them during our isolation.”
Looking ahead to the 90th season — to open with two Family Pops concerts Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 — Pasternack noted the lineup will range from well-known guest artists to soloists joining the symphony for the first time. As for the orchestra, musicians from across the North Olympic Peninsula come to play in Port Angeles.
“I consider it part of my mission as music director to make every concert program feel like a special event to both the audience and the musicians on stage,” Pasternack said. This coming season, “concertgoers will find the selection of music to include many favorites and some rather ambitious projects.
“One of the things I am most excited about is the symphony’s commissioning of a new concerto for double bass and orchestra, to premiere in the December program.
“The work is being written specifically for our players and for bass virtuoso Stephen Schermer, who grew up in Port Angeles. Stephen is one of my favorite musicians and people, and that also goes for the concerto’s Seattle-based composer, Sarah L. Bassingthwaighte, a longtime collaborator of mine who is also a phenomenal flute soloist.”
The 2022-2023 season lineup brings:
• Family Pops, featuring music from Aaron Copland and John Philip Sousa, Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” with narrator Lisa Bergman of KING-FM, and selections from “Phantom of the Opera” and “Star Wars,” Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center;
• The Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra with Symphony Chamber Soloists, featuring Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du Soldat,” Oct. 14 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Port Angeles, and Oct. 15 at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sequim;
• Soprano Kristin Vogel and the Port Angeles Symphony with the music of Strauss, Liszt and Beethoven, Nov. 5, Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center;
• Double-bassist Stephen Schermer with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and the world premiere of Bassingthwaighte’s Concerto for Double Bass, plus music of Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dukas and Johann Strauss, Dec. 10, Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center;
• Guest horn soloist Allison Tutton and tenor Eric Riegel with the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra and music of Britten, Butterworth and Haydn, Jan. 20 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Port Angeles, and Jan. 21 at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sequim;
• Violinist Elisa Barston with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and music of Dvorak, Pärt and Saint-Säens, Feb. 18, Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center;
• Pianist Josu De Solaun with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and music of Martinu, Dvorak and Brahms, March 25, Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center;
• Cellist Julian Schwarz with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and music of Mozart, Bartok and Dvorak, May 6, Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center;
• The Port Angeles Symphony Chorus, with vocal soloists Nathan Rødahl, Sarah Moran and Gregory Lewis, organist Noah Smith with the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra and music of Handel, Poulenc and Schubert, May 19 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Port Angeles, and May 20 at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sequim.
“The prospect of getting back to a full calendar of events is an exciting one for all of us,” Pasternack said, adding the plan is to give symphony subscribers from the 2019-2020 season the option of keeping the same seats they had before the closures of 2020.
Season tickets will go on sale this summer, Pasternack said, adding that information will be posted at portangelessymphony.org and in the local news media.
In the meantime, the Port Angeles Symphony String Quartet — with violinists Jory Noble and Morgan Bartholick-LeMaire, violist Tyrone Beatty and cellist Traci Winters Tyson, will appear at the Juan de Fuca Festival later this month. For details about the quartet’s performance during the May 27-29 festival, see JFFA.org.
