The first concert of our 2023/2024 season will take place at 7.30pm on October 21, 2023 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara. The concert will feature works by Prokofiev, Dvorak, Wagner and Milhaud, performed by smaller ensembles in an intimate setting. We believe these pieces will resonate deeply with audiences and offer a unique live classical music experience.
Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. Wagner originally intended the piece, scored for a small chamber orchestra, to remain a private piece; however, due to financial pressures, he decided to sell the score.
Milhaud’s La Creation du Monde is a 15-minute-long ballet composed in 1922–23, which outlines the creation of the world based on African folk mythology.
Dvorak’s Serenade for Wind instruments, Cello and Double Bass in D minor evokes the atmosphere of musical performances at the castles of the Rococo period, where the worlds of the aristocracy and the common folk merged.
Sergei Prokofiev wrote the Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34, in 1919 while he was in the United States. It is scored for the rare combination of clarinet, string quartet and piano. Fifteen years later the composer prepared the version for chamber orchestra that we will perform.
Advance tickets are now available for $20 or may be purchased on the door for the same price. K-12 students are admitted free!