“The Oakland East Bay Symphony’s annual ‘Notes From …’ series has earned a spot on the Bay Area’s anticipated-concert list by exploring sounds from distant lands, including China, the Middle East, and Iran (billed as Persia),” writes Andrew Gilbert in Monday’s (3/23) San Jose Mercury News (California). “But Friday’s concert at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre draws from a source far more intimately connected to the California experience. ‘Notes From Mexico’ features the symphony, directed by Conductor Michael Morgan, playing an array of classical and folkloric music…. Making his OEBS debut, 19-year-old pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner performs the spectacular and rarely tackled Piano Concerto by Carlos Chavez, the great 20th-century composer, theorist, and educator who founded and first directed the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra…. On the folkloric side, singer/songwriter Diana Gameros arranged a program of traditional Mexican songs, with orchestrations by Mina Choi (founder and director of the Magik*Magik Orchestra). On several pieces, Gameros and the OEBS will be joined by the Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno…. The centerpiece of her set is a medley that includes … songs that she ‘learned as a little girl,’ says Gameros, 33, who was born and raised in Ciudad Juarez” and now lives in Berkeley, California.
Posted March 26, 2015
