Home again! Richmond’s two leading musical organizations – the Richmond Symphony and the Virginia Opera – will be returning downtown to the renovated 1,700-plus-seat Carpenter Theatre after a five-year hiatus.
Grand opening for the theater at Richmond CenterStage on East Grace Street will be held Saturday, Sept. 12, at 8 p.m. The symphony and opera will be joined by the African-American Repertory Theatre, the Elegba Folklore Society, the Richmond Ballet, the Richmond Jazz Society, Richmond Shakespeare, School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community and Theatre IV-Barksdale in acts involving more than 200 performers.
Two weeks later, the Richmond Symphony, joined by its chorus, will kick off its Masterworks season with Carl Orff’s choral piece, “Carmina Burana,” under the baton of Alastair Willis, one of the last three of nine candidates hoping to succeed Mark Russell Smith as the orchestra’s music director.
Masterworks concerts will be held on Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. during the 2009-10 season.
The symphony will celebrate its return downtown with concertos for piano, which have been impossible in the confines of the churches where it has held forth during recent seasons. It will also flex its musical muscles with such blockbusters as Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique” and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and explore some musical roads less traveled, such as Bright Sheng’s “Nanking! Nanking! A Threnody for Orchestra and Pipa” (a Chinese instrument) with soloist Yang Wei, Dvorak’s rarely played Symphony No. 6 and Lili Boulinger’s “D’un Matin de Printemps.”
Also moving back home to the Carpenter from the Landmark Theater will be the orchestra’s pops series and special events such as Handel’s “Messiah” in December.
The symphony is hardly abandoning the suburbs. A four-concert, chamber orchestra series called the Metro Collection will highlight soloists from the orchestra. Sunday concerts will be at 3 p.m. at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, while the 8 p.m. Friday concerts will be held at the Collegiate School, Bon Air Baptist Church, the KingsWay Community Church and the Modlin Center at the University of Richmond.
Opera lovers also will have cause to celebrate the Virginia Opera’s return to the Carpenter Theatre.
For its Richmond appearances (Virginia Opera is based in Norfolk), the troupe is sticking to tried-and-true favorites in its 35th season: Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment,” Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” Information at (866) 673-7283, vaopera.org
Orchestra lovers in Petersburg may cast their lots with the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, which plays on four Sunday afternoons at 4 o’clock. At the orchestra’s helm for the 21st season will be Ulysses Kirksey.
The season will open Oct. 25 at Petersburg High School with selections from Broadway and Johann Strauss Jr. A holiday concert will follow on Dec. 6, also at the school. A chamber orchestra concert, featuring soloists from the community, will be held on Feb. 21 at Tabernacle Baptist Church Community Center. The season will close on April 25 at Petersburg High School with a concert featuring Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony. Tickets: 732-0999, psova.net
The Richmond Philharmonic is the area’s leading volunteer orchestra. Concerts are held Sundays at 4 p.m. in the Sonia Vlahcevic Concert Hall at Virginia Commonwealth University’s W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Ave. Robert Mirakian will conduct. Details: 673-7400, richmondphilharmonic.org
Chamber music figures prominently in the area’s music scene. The leading chamber series, the Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concerts, is held at the Singleton Center at VCU. The series honors one of the founders of the Richmond Symphony and an enthusiastic amateur violist. Highlights during 2009-10 include the Chestnut Brass Company, the Pacifica and Jupiter string quartets, and Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey. Details: 828-1166, vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events
The Richmond Chamber Players offer a series called Interlude on Sundays at 4 p.m. during August. It will be held this year at Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road. In the spring, the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia sponsors the Richmond Festival of Music at various venues in the area (cmscva.org). The Oberon String Quartet, in residence at St. Catherine’s and St. Christopher’s schools, plays twice a year at the schools with off-the-beaten-track works programmed. The Gellman Room series at the Richmond Public Library at 101 E. Franklin St. programs chamber music on Saturday afternoons throughout the season, often also featuring less-familiar works.
Choruses also are prominent on Richmond’s classical music scene. In addition to the Richmond Symphony Chorus, choruses include the Greater Richmond Children’s Choir, the Richmond Boys Choir, the Richmond Choral Society, the Richmond Concert Chorale, the Richmond Men’s Chorus, the Richmond Renaissance Singers and The Virginians, which is the Richmond chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Likewise, bands such as the Richmond Pops and the Richmond Concert Band add spice to the musical landscape, as do churches in the community. To stay abreast of things classical, visit letterv.blogspot.com.
This article originally published in Discover Richmond. Click here to view more Discover articles, or send us an e-mail to request a copy of the magazine.
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