THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050082
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARK MOBLEY
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
THE VIRGINIA Symphony is closing out its Classical Masterworks season with one of the year's meatiest programs. Friday and Saturday at Chrysler Hall, the orchestra will play Mahler's expansive Fifth Symphony, Poulenc's bubbly Concerto for Two Pianos and a new work by local composer Adolphus Hailstork.
The Mahler is sure to be one of the season's high points. It's an amazing work, one that might seem out of reach for regional orchestras. But the Richmond Symphony triumphed with it under music director George Manahan a few seasons back. With the Virginia Symphony's eager brass, sure woodwinds and vastly improved strings, these should be memorable performances.
Sisters Mona Golabek and Renee Golabek Kaye, winners of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the People's Award of the International Chopin Competition, will be soloists in the Poulenc. They have performed in more than 40 countries and released a ``Carnival of the Animals'' recording that features the narrating talents of Audrey Hepburn, James Earl Jones and Ted Danson, among others.
Hailstork's ``Lachrymosa: 1919'' is his 75th anniversary gift to the orchestra. It is a brief but lush work for strings alone that commemorates World War I, which was ending just as plans for the Norfolk Symphony were being laid.
Concerts are at 8 p.m., with pre-concert lectures at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $34. To order, call 623-2310 or 671-8100. OPERA BENEFIT
Tuesday at the Harrison Opera House, the Bay Youth Symphony Orchestra is playing a benefit concert for Virginia Opera.
The soloist is soprano Barbara Simon, a Virginia Beach native attending the New England Conservatory of Music on a full scholarship. The conductors include opera assistant artistic director Jerome Shannon and youth symphony music director Greg Barnes.
Shannon says the concert continues a partnership between the orchestra and opera begun this season when young players were used as the onstage band in ``La boheme.'' ``It's kind of an amazing organization,'' Shannon said. ``They played well, and we were happy to have them.''
Simon, a 1994 graduate of Bayside high School and the Governor's Magnet School for the Arts, will sing selections by Bizet, Massenet, Mozart, Gluck and Verdi. Of Simon's voice, Shannon said, ``It's quite an abundant instrument. It's quite a gift.''
Barnes, a Virginia Symphony violist, said the concert is a benefit for the opera because he ``would certainly like to support the opera in any way we can. I've been playing in the opera orchestra for 19 years. We get to do a performance in a very lovely hall at a price we cannot otherwise afford.'' The orchestra is being given free use of the hall for Tuesday's concert.
Barnes also noted that the students are being coached in operatic accompanying by Shannon, and that the concert is a singular opportunity for Simon.
The Bay Youth Symphony Orchestra has a budget of between $20,000 and $30,000 and is supported by member fees and grants from local arts commissions. Virginia Opera has a budget in excess of $3 million.
Tickets for the performance are $8 for adults and $5 for students. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call Jojo Chittum at 627-9545, ext. 300. GOING SOLO
Virginia Symphony principal trumpeter Stephen Carlson will be the soloist in a Virginia Beach Symphony Orchestra concert tonight at 7:30 at the Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater.
The program includes Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, Schubert's Symphony No. 9, Liszt's ``Les Preludes'' and the ``Festive Overture'' of Ronald Marshall. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3.50 for students. For more information, call 426-2225.
Virginia Opera is presenting ``Opera Story Time,'' a free program for pre-schoolers and their families, Saturday at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Sopranos Linda Jo Van Wagner and Emily Labidi and pianist Jennifer Peterson will tell the story of Hansel and Gretel with Virginia Opera education director Helen Stevenson.
No reservations are required. For more information, call 627-9545, ext. 334. by CNB