José Luis Gomez to Conduct TSO with Young Artists Competition Winners & Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra in Side-by-Side Concert at Tucson Music Hall March 29
(Tucson, AZ)─The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will perform a free concert Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Tucson Music Hall to honor donors and welcome the community. Music Director José Luis Gomez will conduct the winners of this year’s Young Artists Competition and a side-by-side performance of the Tucson Symphony and the Tucson Philharmonia Youth Orchestra (TPYO), Suzette Battan, Music Director. The program will feature music by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Tchaikovsky. Everyone is invited to attend, come as you are and no ticket is required.
“Our donors not only support our concert work on the stage and throughout the region but also support our future generation of artists,” commented Tom McKinney, President and CEO of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. “And, our donors make our work possible for the entire community. With this concert, we are welcoming the community to our home.”
Bravo TSO, as the concert has been titled, will feature José Luis Gomez conducting the TSO throughout. Joining them will be four young artists including Levi Powe, a 17 year old cellist who won First Place in the 21st Annual National Sphinx Competition Junior Division for musicians 17 and under in January, 2018. Previously he has won the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition three times since he first entered at age 11. A student of TSO cellist Mary Beth Tyndall, Powe will perform an excerpt from Haydn’s first cello concerto, which was among the pieces he performed to win the Sphinx Competition.
Opening the program will be 18 year old harpist Claire Thai. Principal harpist with the TPYO, Thai has won competitions around the world and last summer performed a solo recital in Hong Kong for the World Harp Congress, an honor given only to the top performers around the globe.
Making her performing debut with an orchestra, 11 year old Hannah Lui is a sixth grader at BASIS Tucson North. She has placed in many competitions including the Rocky Ridge Junior Music Program Concerto Competition and won first place in the Music Teachers Association of America Merit Scholarship. In addition to piano she plays cello and performs in the Junior Chamber Orchestra and Tucson Junior Strings.
Melissa Radtke last performed with the Tucson Symphony on 2017’s Piano Bash benefit concert. In 2016, Melissa and her sister Rachael placed first in the College Division of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition, and the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music President’s Competition.
The Tucson Philharmonia is nationally recognized among the country’s foremost symphonic training programs. The TPYO made history in 2000, becoming the first and only Arizona orchestra to produce and present a concert at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. The members are among the most honored young musicians in Southern Arizona. Seventy-four of the 2016-2017 Philharmonia’s members were selected for the 2017 Regional Honor Orchestras and Bands and nineteen members won 2017 Arizona All-State honors. Tucson Philharmonia members have also won awards at numerous music competitions and performed as soloists with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. In addition, many members are the recipients of scholarships to top universities and to prestigious summer music programs and festivals such as the National Youth Orchestra of America and Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Music Director Suzette Batten will conduct the TPYO and the TSO in the famous Russian Sailors Dance from the ballet, The Red Poppy. The program will conclude with excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 29 at Tucson Music Hall. Seating is general admission, no tickets required.
Programming and artists are subject to change.
Contact: Terry Marshall, Public Relations Manager, 520.620.9158
