San Francisco Chronicle
Jan 22 2010

Take a trip to Armenia tonight with the Oakland East Bay Symphony
No plans yet for tonight?

Oakland East Bay Symphony

If your Friday evening is still open, you may want to check out the
Oakland East Bay Symphony’s program Notes from Armenia.

Downtown’s beautiful Paramount Theater is wonderful place to enjoy a
show, and the Oakland East Bay Symphony always puts on a great
program. Tonight should be no exception.

The show will highlight Armenian music, and if that’s a subject a
little out of your sphere of knowledge, you can come early and get
schooled with a pre-concert lecture from Trinity Lyric Opera conductor
John Kendall Bailey at 7 PM.

Here’s the symphony’s description of tonight’s concert:

Building on the success of last year’s concert featuring Persian
music, we’ll once again explore classical music from another distant
region of the world. This year, we’ll introduce our audience to the
exotic rhythms and instrumentation of music from Armenia, presenting
works by both popular and less well-known composers. We are joined by
The Seemorgh Ensemble and select singers from various Bay Area choral
groups.

We’ll open with Mozart’s powerful Symphony No. 38, which received its
triumphant premiere in Prague. The dynamic, melodic Violin Concerto by
famous Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian will feature the brilliant
young Siberian-born violinist Mikhail Simonyan, who at 23 is already
recognized as one of the most celebrated talents of his generation.
Also on the program is Edvard Mirzoyan’s exciting work for orchestra
and solo timpani, and Lazar Saryan’s Panel Armenia, which was inspired
by the paintings of the composer’s father, the great Armenian painted
Martiros Saryan.

Tickets are still available online, and of course, you can always pick
them up at the box office tonight as well.

The show starts at 8 PM at the Paramount Theater (2025 Broadway) in
downtown Oakland.

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