For its third concert of the season, "Border Crossings," Orchestra Santa Monica reaches across borders and around the world bringing exciting and colorful orchestral pieces to Santa Monica. Chen Yi, one of the most important Chinese composers who came of age during the Cultural Revolution and pursued composition studies in the U.S., fuses traditional Chinese music with contemporary Western idioms. Gabriela Lena Frank transmits her Lithuanian-Jewish and Peruvian-Chinese heritage through her music, including the tone poem in this concert that evokes the atmosphere and music of the Andes. Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla transformed the traditional tango through jazz influences. And to conclude the concert, Czech composer Antonín Dvorák runs through the gamut of charming melodies and dances from his homeland.
The performance will be held in the Moss Theatre at Santa Monica's New Roads School. The facility is designed to offer the audience an intimate concert experience one rarely has with orchestra concerts. Its thrust stage provides audience members with an excellent visual connection to the players and to the music-making.
Conductor and Music Director Allen Robert Gross, who has received worldwide recognition for his imaginative and probing interpretations of standard and contemporary orchestral repertoires, leads OSM.
The show will be April 19 at Moss Theater, New Roads School, 3131 Olympic Blvd. at 3:30 p.m. Adults $30, seniors $25, college students $15, K-12 students $10. Tickets can be purchased by calling (310) 525-7618 or visiting www.orchestrasantamonica.org.
