As it prepares to open its 17th season shortly, the Symphonia Boca Raton is adding two Saturday concerts to accommodate additional audience members since both of its originally scheduled December and January Sunday afternoon productions are sold out.
Tickets for the Dec. 5 and Jan. 9 performances are gone. Symphonia officials said seating is restricted due to social distancing required by COVID-19 regulations.
The shows being added are scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Jan. 8, both at 3 p.m., and tickets are available.
Alexander Platt, former conductor of the Symphonia Boca Raton, will return to lead the orchestra at concerts Dec. 4 and 5. (Photo courtesy of Symphonia Boca Raton)
All performances this year will take place at the Symphonia’s normally scheduled venue, Roberts Theater on the campus of Saint Andrew’s School, 3900 Jog Road in Boca Raton. Concerts performed during the height of the pandemic were conducted at other locations.
Guitarist Jason Vieaux will perform with the Symphonia Boca Raton at concerts on season opening weekend Dec. 4 and 5. (Photo by Tyler Boye)
The organization issued the following precautions about COVID:
“Socially distanced seating will be applied to concerts, so we are unable to assign our renewing subscribers their same seats. However, every effort will be made to keep you as close as possible to your original seat choice. Conditions permitting, we hope to have you back in your usual seats by early next year. Note: Masks must be worn at all times while indoors.”
“For the safety and protection of our audience and musicians, these concerts will run without intermission. Audience members are welcome to use the facilities at any time during the concert. We will be monitoring the situation for the second half of the season. Until further notice, the March and April concerts will be held as currently scheduled.”
Grammy-nominated violinist and conductor Andrés Cárdenes will appear with the Symphonia Boca Raton Jan. 8 and 9. (Photo courtesy of Symphonia Boca Raton)
Maestro Alastair Williswill be back on the Symphonia’s podium for its April 24 concert. (Photo by Tamatha Blair)
Alexander Platt, the Symphonia’s principal conductor from 2006-2009, rejoins the musicians to present Grammy Award-winning guitar sensation Jason Vieaux in a performance of Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranguez.” The concert opens with two pieces for strings from William Grant Still’s “Lyric Suite,” and it will close with Bizet’s popular “Symphony in C.”
Grammy-nominated violinist and conductor Andrés Cárdenes’ first appearance with The Symphonia this year is a dazzling, sensuous, all-strings program. Paganini’s dazzling “Caprice No. 24” will open the concert, which will conclude with Mahler’s dark, brooding, and driven arrangement of Schubert’s “Quartet in D Minor (“Death and the Maiden”).”
At this time, the remainder of the season will offer Sunday performances only:
Spring is in the air, and Laura Jackson leads the orchestra in a concert of works by Adolphe, Britten, and Beethoven, featuring piano soloist Marika Bournaki.
Maestro Alastair Williswill be back on the podium, and he is joined on stage by Les Roettges, flute soloist, for a program filled with mystery and haunting beauty. The concert features a flute concerto by “the French Mozart,” Francois Devienne, Mendelssohn’s evocative “Hebrides Overture” (“Fingal’s Cave”) and Manuel de Falla’s suite from his sensuous ballet, “El Amor Brujo.”
Season subscriptions start at $175 per person. Information on subscriptions, single concert tickets and programs is available at thesymphonia.org, by calling 561-376-3848, or by emailing tickets@thesymphonia.org. A Pre-Concert Conversation hosted by the guest conductor, or a speaker, is offered on the day of each concert, from 2-2:30 p.m., so ticket holders can learn more about the pieces to be performed that afternoon. It is free for concert ticket holders. The Symphonia, recognized as the region’s premier chamber orchestra, provides high-quality classical music. Its performances and educational outreach programs feature nationally and internationally acclaimed conductors and soloists, with special emphasis on its younger citizens.
A Massachusetts native who moved to Florida in 2000, he is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, with honors degrees in English and Journalism. In New England, he worked for the Attleboro (Mass.) Sun Chronicle and the Pawtucket (R.I.) Times, the latter for 28 years. After moving to Florida, he worked as a copy editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, and, in 2001, became a reporter and later, city editor, at the Boca
Raton News where he worked for eight years.
