Tuesday (2/22) on the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster, Mike Boehm writes, “The Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra will tour overseas for the first time this summer, a 10-day, three-city trip to Bulgaria led by its music director, Maxim Eshkenazy, who knows the turf as a native Bulgarian. The group, which numbers about 75 musicians ages 13 to 18, will travel June 26 to July 5, performing in Plovdiv, Varna and the capital city, Sofia. The program is a mixture of American and European selections: George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ Suite, Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Slava! A Political Overture’ and John Williams’ ‘Star Wars’ theme on the American side, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Thracian Dances’ from Bulgarian Petkov Staynov on the Eastern European end, and a Hollywood-Central European hybrid in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ theme by German film composer Klaus Badelt. … Eshkenazy and the youth orchestra will give ‘Porgy and Bess’ a shakedown run Sunday at 4 p.m. as part of their concert program at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, where they will join forces with another youth ensemble, the Pacific Chorale Honor Choir.”
Posted February 23, 2011
