PORT TOWNSEND — A free preview of the Seattle Symphony’s Friday performance at Fort Worden State Park’s McCurdy Pavilion is planned at
7 tonight.
Centrum artistic director Lucinda Carver will play some of the selections, both live and recorded, and provide background on the pieces at Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden.
The performance will be only a small appetizer for Friday’s 7 p.m. concert at McCurdy Pavilion, 200 Battery Way.
Then, retiring Maestro Gerard Schwarz of the Seattle Symphony will lead his 85-member orchestra — and two teenage guest musicians from Port Townsend — as he conducts his second-to-last concert of his career.
After 28 years in Seattle, Schwarz’s final performance as director will be in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall on Saturday.
Friday’s concert will be varied, with Schubert’s “Overture to Rosamunde,” the new “Reflections: Songs of Fathers and Daughters” from Seattle’s Sam Jones, the world premiere of Philip Glass’ “Harmonium Mountain” and Antonin Dvorak’s popular “New World Symphony.”
The two young Port Townsenders invited to join the orchestra for “New World” are cellist Sam Gordon, 18, and Rinnah Becker, a 15-year-old violinist.
Having the symphony, which Centrum’s Executive Director John MacElwee described as one of the most versatile large orchestras in the nation, play Port Townsend has not happened in nearly 10 years, he said.
Schwarz, winner of two Emmys, six ASCAP awards and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation prizes, will become conductor laureate and return to lead the Seattle Symphony for a few weeks each year.
His successor is Ludovic Morlot, a 37-year-old Frenchman who has conducted the New York and Royal Stockholm philharmonics as well as the Cleveland, Boston and Tokyo Philharmonic orchestras.
Tickets priced at $35, $50 and $75 are available by phoning 800-746-1982 or visiting www.Centrum.org.
