October 5, 2021
Pasadena, CA – Pasadena Symphony and Pops opens its 93rd season with Beethoven Symphony No. 7 on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Ambassador Auditorium with both matinee and evening performances at 2:00pm and 8:00pm. Acclaimed conductor Joseph Young, who serves as Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony among other major posts across the US, will kick off the 21/22 Symphony series as one of seven Artistic Partners leading the orchestra this season. To open the program, the Symphony ushers in their second annual Composer’s Showcase with Jessie Montgomery’s festive Banner, written for The Sphinx Organization to mark the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner.
The Highlight of the opening concert is the eagerly anticipated performance of up and comer Randall Goosby on Brahms Violin Concerto. Coined as “Classical music’s new breakout star” and “poised for the big time” by the LA Times, his recent Hollywood debut held audiences breathless with Mark Swed describing him as “play(ing) like an angel with nothing to prove. A cool, calm, collected angel.” Goosby’s Pasadena Symphony premiere is sure to bring audiences to their feet.
In order to provide the safest possible experience for all concertgoers, entry to all Pasadena Symphony concerts will require proof of full Covid-19 vaccination. For a list of accepted forms of proof and the most up to date venue safety protocols, please visit pasadenasymphony-pops.org/covid-19-safety-protocols-pops.
The Pasadena Symphony provides a quintessential experience specially designed for the music lover, the social butterfly or a date night out, and the inner epicurean in us all. Audiences can enjoy a drink or a bite in the lively outdoor Symphony Lounge, yet another addition to the carefree and elegant concert experience the Pasadena Symphony offers. A posh setting at Ambassador Auditorium’s beautiful outdoor plaza, the Lounge offers uniquely prepared menus for both lunch and dinner and a full service bar before the concert and during intermission.
All Symphony series concerts take place at Ambassador Auditorium, 131 S. St. John Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105, with performances at 2pm and 8pm. Subscription packages start at $99 with single tickets starting at $35. Both may be purchased online at pasadenasymphony-pops.org or by calling (626) 793-7172.
- What: The Pasadena Symphony presents Beethoven Symphony No.7
Joseph Young, conductor
Randall Goosby, violinJessie Montgomery Banner
Brahms Violin Concerto
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
- When: Saturday, October 16, 2021 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm
- Where: Ambassador Auditorium | 131 South St. John Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105
- Cost: Tickets start at $35.00
- Parking: Valet parking is available on St. John Ave for $15. General parking is available in two locations: next to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave) at the covered parking structure for $10 and directly across the street at the Wells Fargo parking structure (entrance on Terrace at Green St). ADA parking is located at the above-ground parking lot adjacent to the Auditorium (entrance on St. John Ave.) for $10. Parking purchased onsite is cash only.
- Proof of Vaccination: The Pasadena Symphony is committed to providing the safest possible setting for the community and will require all concertgoers to be fully vaccinated to attend concerts at Ambassador Auditorium. For protocols, visit: pasadenasymphony-pops.org/symphony-covid-safety/
The Pasadena Symphony Association
Recent Acclaim for the Pasadena Symphony and POPS:
“The Pasadena Symphony signals a new direction…teeming with vitality…dripping with opulent, sexy emotion.” – Los Angeles Times.
“In his five years leading the PSO, Lockington has taken an ensemble that was already quite good and elevated it into one where excellence is the byword.” – Pasadena Star News.
Formed in 1928, the Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Hollywood’s most talented, sought after musicians. With extensive credits in the film, television, recording and orchestral industry, the artists of Pasadena Symphony and POPS are the most heard in the world.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS performs in two of the most extraordinary venues in the United States: Ambassador Auditorium, known as the Carnegie Hall of the West, and the luxuriant Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden. Internationally recognized, Grammy-nominated conductor, David Lockington, serves as the Pasadena Symphony Association’s Music Director, with performance-practice specialist Nicholas McGegan serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The multi-platinum-selling, two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated entertainer dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” Michael Feinstein, is the Principal Pops Conductor, who succeeded Marvin Hamlisch in the newly created Marvin Hamlisch Chair.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served the youth of the region for over five decades through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO), comprised of five performing ensembles with 300 gifted 4th-12th grade students from more than 50 schools all over the Southern California region. The PYSO has toured internationally at prestigious venues in New York, Vienna, and most recently San Jose, Costa Rica. They regularly perform throughout Southern California and have appeared on the popular television show GLEE.
The PSA provides people from all walks of life with powerful access points to the world of symphonic music.
Joseph Young
Conductor
Praised for his suavely adventurous programing, Joseph Young is increasingly recognized as “one of the most gifted conductors of his generation.” Joseph is Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony, Artistic Director of Ensembles for the Peabody Conservatory, and Resident Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra–USA at Carnegie Hall.
In recent years, he has made appearances with the Saint Louis Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Bamberger Symphoniker, New World Symphony Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, and the Orquesta Sinfonica y Coro de RTVE (Madrid); among others in the U.S. and Europe.
In his most recent role Joseph served as the Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony where he conducted more than 50 concerts per season Mr. Young also served as the Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, where he was the driving force behind the ensemble’s artistic growth. Previous appointments have included Resident Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, and the League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow with Buffalo Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony.
Joseph is a recipient of the 2015 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award for young conductors, an award he also won in 2008, and 2014. In 2013, Joseph was a Semi-finalist in the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition (Bamberg, Germany). In 2011, he was one out of six conductors featured in the League of American Orchestras’ prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview.
Joseph completed graduate studies with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at the Peabody Conservatory in 2009, earning an artist’s diploma in conducting. He has been mentored by many world-renowned conductors including Jorma Panula, Robert Spano and Marin Alsop whom he continues to maintain a close relationship
Randall Goosby
Violin
Randall Goosby began violin studies at the age of 7 and made his solo debut with the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony at age 9. At the age of 13, Randall was the youngest participant ever to win the Sphinx Concerto Competition. He is a recipient of Sphinx’s Isaac Stern Award and has made two appearances at Carnegie Hall as part of the organization’s Young Artist Development Program. The New York Times raved that in his Carnegie Hall debut performance of Ysaye Solo Sonata No. 3, he “exerted a masterly level of control and lavished an exquisite tone…his performance won him a deserved standing ovation for its sheer virtuosity.”
Randall has been featured on National Public Radio’s “From the Top,” and he has been honored as a Rising Star of the Stradivari Society. Randall was a prize winner at the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, leading to his addition to the artist roster of Young Classical Artists Trust in London. As YCAT’s inaugural Robey Artist, in partnership with London Music Masters, Randall mentors and works closely with young musicians in schools around the UK. He is also a recipient of a career advancement grant from the Bagby Foundation. He has spent his summers studying at the Perlman Music Program, Verbier Festival Academy, and Mozarteum Summer Academy, among others.
As a soloist, Randall has performed widely throughout the USA, having appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the New World Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has also given recitals at such venues as the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Kaufman Center (New York City), and Wigmore Hall (London).
In addition to his concerts, Randall shares his love of music through community engagement programs for public schools, children’s hospitals, and music programs across the USA. Through Concerts in Motion, a non-profit organization in New York City, he provides private house concerts for elderly and otherwise homebound patrons. In addition, he gives private virtual performances for COVID-19 patients through Project Music Heals Us.
Randall received a full scholarship to The Juilliard School’s Pre-College program and has earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from Juilliard under the tutelage of violinists Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Laurie Smukler, and Donald Weilerstein. He is now pursuing an Artist Diploma at Juilliard, where he will continue his studies with Mr. Perlman and Ms. Cho. Randall was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship throughout his collegiate studies at Juilliard.
He currently plays on a Guarneri del Gesu (1735) on generous loan from the Stradivari Society.
Jessie Montgomery
Composer
Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post).
Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy.
Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. She was a two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition and was awarded a generous MPower grant to assist in the development of her debut album, Strum: Music for Strings (Azica Records). She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization.
Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Five Slave Songs (2018) commissioned for soprano Julia Bullock by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Records from a Vanishing City (2016) for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the
200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner – for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation.
In the 2019-20 season, new commissioned works will be premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the National Choral Society, and ASCAP Foundation. Jessie is also teaming up with composer-violinist Jannina Norpoth to reimagine Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha; it is being produced by Volcano Theatre and co-commissioned by Washington Performing Arts, Stanford University, Southbank Centre (London), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Additionally, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony will all perform Montgomery’s works this season.
The New York Philharmonic has selected Jessie as one of the featured composers for their Project 19, which marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting equal voting rights in the United States to women. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley and to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony.
Jessie began her violin studies, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and currently a member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi.
Jessie’s teachers and mentors include Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Alice Kanack, Joan Tower, Derek Bermel, Mark Suozzo, Ira Newborn, and Laura Kaminsky. She holds degrees from the Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University.