This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

Culver City Symphony Orchestra / Veterans Day Remembrance

The CULVER CITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA  presents its Season Opening concert of the 2011-12 Season:  “Veterans Day Remebrance.”  Free parking is available. This concert is under the direction of Conductor-Frank Fetta. 

This concert honors the Men and Women of United States Armed Forces, appropriately since the orchestra performs in Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium.  Veterans Day honors that at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th  month, fighting ceased in World War I.  2011 is the first time it will be celebrated in the 11th year.

The concert features Cellist - Stella Cho, a Senior Division Winner of the orchestra sponsored Parness Young Artists Concerto Competition, and guest artist Tenor - H. Waring Sharpe. 

Find out what's happening in Culver Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Season Opening - Veterans Day Remembrance 

Program:

Find out what's happening in Culver Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Frank Fetta - Conductor

Medley of Themes for the United States Armed Forces

Donizetti: Ah! Mes Ami, “The Daughter of the Regiment” (1840), Haqumai Sharpe, tenor

Elgar: Cello Concerto (1918-19), Stella Cho-Cello

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 (1876)

Donations and membership to the Westchester Symphony Society, Inc. are welcome.  Members of the Westchester Symphony Society are entitled to reserved concert seating, and to a pre-concert talk given by Maestro Fetta. Membership is available at the concert. 

The Westchester Symphony Society, Inc., presents The Culver City Symphony Orchestra,  The Marina del Rey Summer Symphony, and produces the Parness Young Artists Fund Concerto Competition.

The Culver City Symphony Orchestra is now in its twelfth year performing in Culver City, and begins its 49th season. It has performed in many regional venues in the communities of Westchester, Venice, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and now Culver City. 

In addition to presenting the standard orchestra repertoire and concert dramatizations of operas, the orchestra has presented unique concerts devoted to Black American, Hispanic, and Women composers. It is the parent orchestra of the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony which performs at Burton Chace Park. The orchestra has performed at The Los Angeles Street Festival, on live-radio music broadcasts from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

FRANK FETTA, Conductor and Music Director, is well known for his conducting of orchestral music, ballet, and opera in Southern California as well as throughout the country including engagements with the San Diego Symphony, the Redlands Bowl Music Festival (of which he is director), the Fresno Philharmonic, the Torrance Symphony, the Nevada Opera Theater, and the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony.

STELLA CHO, Originally from South Korea and raised in Great Britain, 21-year-old Stella began playing the cello when she was eight years old. She made her London solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall, London, playing in front of a sold out capacity audience. She has also given recital programs in South Korea, Spain, Holland, Germany, Poland, Croatia, U.S.A. and played on numerous occasions on national television and radio. Furthermore, Stella took part in the 2007 Kronberg International Cello Festival in Germany as the youngest active participant. She attended the Aspen Music Festival for the past two summers with full scholarship studying cello with Richard Aaron and chamber music with Wu Han.

Stella has participated in master classes with numerous distinguished artists including Frans Helmerson, Lluis Claret, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Timothy Eddy. Her major awards and achievements include winning Texaco Young Musician of Wales; recipient of the MBF Geoffrey Shaw Scholarship; and the Hattori Award. Recently, she won the 2010 Culver City Symphony Young Artists Concerto competition and the Fine Arts Club of Pasadena Cello Competition. 

As a chamber musician, Stella has participated in master classes with the members of the Tokyo, Emerson, Orion and Takacs String Quartets and her trio reached the semi-finals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She was also selected to perform with Joseph Silverstein during his residency at USC in April 2011.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Stella is a member of the USC Contemporary Music Ensemble, collaborated with Steven Mackey and has played for the renowned Eighth Blackbird ensemble. The USC Composition Department also awarded her the Most Valuable Performer Award in 2009.

In addition, she was appointed as the Principal Cellist of the American Youth Symphony this fall, has served as the Principal Cellist of USC Symphony, and as the Associate Principal Cellist of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Stella is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music degree at the prestigious Gregor Piatigorsky Studio, USC Thornton School of Music with Ralph Kirshbaum. Stella plays on a 1967 Carl Becker & Sons cello generously loaned to her from the Colburn Foundation and a Paul Siefried bow from the Maestro Foundation.

H. WARING SHARPE, Hailed by opera legends such as Mignon Dunn, Florence Quivar and the late William Warfield as “one of the most promising young American tenors”, H. Waring Sharpe, a Chicago native, received his Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance from Butler University, and continued his graduate studies in vocal arts at the University of Southern California.  He is well known for his solo guest performances with Opera Noir, the Opera League of Los Angeles, African-Americans for Los Angeles Opera, the William Grant Still Music Festival, the National Association of Negro Musicians, Opera Buffs, the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and the Southeast Symphony.

Mr. Sharpe was a Western Regional Finalist in the Met National Council Auditions, a finalist in the Opera Guild of Palm Springs Competition and a 2008 finalist in the Loren Zachary National Voice Competition.  

He has performed for Opera Pacific, Utah Opera Festival and San Diego State University where he is currently in collaboration of singing the title role in the highly anticipated opera of Paul Laurence Dunbar.  He has also appeared with the Fresno Grand Opera, Westchester Symphony, Culver City Symphony, the Torrance Symphony Orchestra and the Redlands Bowl.

He appeared as Madison in the world premiere of Monticello at the Skirball Center; other opera roles include Nate in W.G. Still's Highway 1, the title role of Albert Herring, Monostatos in the Magic Flute, Vasek in The Battered Bride, and Des Grieux in Manon.  

In addition to his vocal career, he was named the Indiana State Champion of Dramatic Prose and Poetry Reading.  His interpretation of American classics from literary giants such as Dunbar, Hughes, Albee, and Uhry have kept the art of story -telling alive and well.  Mr. Sharpe is also an accomplished writer of prose and poetry and is currently penning an anthology of comedic short stories detailing his childhood.

The Culver City Symphony Orchestra is Presented by:

The Westchester Symphony Society, Inc.

P. O. Box 4846

Culver City, CA 90231

www.culvercitysymphony.org   

e-mail: info@culvercitysymphony.org         

ph. 310-717-5500

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?