Hannah Arnush / Roundup
The San Fernando Valley Orchestra performed Strings Spectacular last night for a full house in the Performing Arts Building.
Maestro James Domine founded the orchestra and is the musical director and conductor for the symphony.
Domine led the orchestra in over 1,000 concert performances all across the country. The orchestra has been performing classical works along with new musical compositions for 26 years.
Along with community performances, the symphony has been featured in dramatic productions and Broadway musicals.
The San Fernando Valley Orchestra now plays a major role in expanding the musical horizons of Southern California residents.
The orchestra includes students from Pierce’s Music 721 class and other musicians from the community.
The show included two featured soloists for the Mozart portion, Nancy Roth and Ruth Bruegger, who really made the music come alive.
Nancy Roth, a violinist and violist in the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra, is currently concertmaster of the Carson Symphony and Westchester Symphony, principal second violinist of the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay and a member of the Pasadena Symphony.
Roth has recorded for both movies and television and you can hear her in the movies “A Beautiful Mind”, “Death to Smoochy”, “Swordfish” and “The Glass House”.
She has played for the television shows “King of the Hill”, “Family Guy” and “West Wing”. Ruth Bruegger, violinist, has played in some of the finest orchestras in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara and has toured with Eric Clapton and Erica Boccelli.
One of her greatest achievements is having soloed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the San Fernando Valley Symphony.
The set included Handel’s Excerpts from the Water Music Suite three in allegro, ten in andante allegro and eleven in alla hornpipe.
It was a great opening for the show and truly engaged the audiences’ interest.
Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante one, two and three was the best performance of the evening.
Roth and Bruegger added a special touch and made it seem like each person in the audience was receiving a personal concert.
At the end of the set, the hall was filled with applause and the performer’s received a standing ovation.
The audience raved during intermission.
One even made a comment to me saying “Not bad music huh?” not bad at all.
The set ended with Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony number three in E-flat major, which was performed with energy and liveliness.
The symphony will play a year-round concert series at Pierce their next show will be on April 24 where they will play Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune with Michael Kibbe doing Mythos, an inaugural performance and Bartok’s Violin Concerto with Agnes Schwartz on violin.
They will also be playing on May 22 doing Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto number 2 with Carolyn Osborn on violin and Stravinsky’s The Firebird.
The orchestra will also be doing a new piece that night that will be announced later on. If you are a fan of music and performances you should definitely see the San Fernando Valley Symphony.
They have incredible talent and are directed under an amazing composer tickets are only twenty dollars for students so mark it on your calendar and keep April 24 open for their next show.