Distant Light
BAINBRIDGE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Music Director & Conductor Mario Alejandro Torres
The Program
GEORGE W. CHADWICK: Jubilee from Symphonic Sketches
PĒTERIS VASKS: Distant Light Violin Concerto
Soloist: Maria Larionoff, former concertmaster of SSO
GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets, Op. 32
Mars, the Bringer of War
Venus, the Bringer of Peace
Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
BCB Podcast: Listen to an interview with Mario Alejandro Torres
Read the Guest Column from Maestro Torres
Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra launches BPA's 2019 – 2020 symphonic season in grand fashion with Music Director & Conductor Mario Alejandro Torres and a program that’s “out of this world.” To celebrate the new season, BSO will start the evening with George Chadwick’s buoyant Jubilee from Symphonic Sketches. Then the acclaimed violinist and former concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, Maria Larionoff, will make a guest appearance by performing one of the most important violin concertos of the 20th century – Distant Light by Pēteris Vasks. In a moving conclusion to the evening, BSO will perform selections from Gustav Holst’s powerful and haunting The Planets.
Mario Alejandro Torres
Mario Alejandro Torres is a conductor, teacher, and performer native to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Currently based in Seattle, Washington, Mr. Torres made his Benaroya Hall conducting debut in collaboration with Maestros Ludovic Morlot and David Alexander Rahbee in an exciting concert with the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra. For the past two years, he has served in a conducting fellowship with the Seattle Symphony, assisting Maestro Morlot in collaboration with artists such as Hilary Hahn and John Luther Adams. As the Music Director of Poulsbo Community Orchestra, he has brought a new and exciting sound to the ensemble. Outside of the United States, he has conducted performances with the Eddy Snijders Orchestra in Paramaribo, Suriname, and in his hometown with the professional Chamber Orchestra of San Pedro Sula, and Victoriano Lopez School of Music Choir.
As an advocate for Education, Mr. Torres serves as Assistant Conductor of the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, where he is a candidate for the doctoral degree in orchestral conducting under the mentorship of David Alexander Rahbee and Seattle Symphony Music Director Ludovic Morlot. His energy and passion to work with young musicians have brought the UW Campus Philharmonia Orchestras to a higher level of artistic performance. He has also held teaching positions at the Victoriano Lopez School of Music in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Louisiana Academy of Music in Natchitoches, Louisiana. In his work for social inclusion, Mr. Torres has appeared internationally as a guest conductor and clinician for programs such as The National Music School of Suriname in South America and the Académie Musicale Occide Jeanty in Croix des Bouquets, Haiti.
As a violist, he has performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of San Pedro Sula, NSULA Symphony and Chamber orchestras, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, and the Monteux School and Music Festival. He has been co-principal violist for Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and Shreveport Summer Music Festival. He has also played with Symphoria, Shreveport, Longview, Rapides, Marshall, and Costa Rica Symphony orchestras. Mr. Torres performed with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, and England.
Mr. Torres holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Ithaca College under the mentorship of Jeffery Meyer, and a Bachelor and a Master of Music in Viola Performance from Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSULA). Mr. Torres completed a professional program with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas’ Global Leaders Program, focusing in community leadership, teaching artistry, and social entrepreneurship. Mr. Torres also holds degrees in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration.
His wife Jenny is an active member of the community, supporting and engaging in activities with the Seattle Music Partners Program, and the Special Events department of the Seattle Symphony
Maria Larionoff, violin
“An outstanding talent, intoxicating in its brilliance” raved the San Francisco Chronicle at Ms. Larionoff’s solo debut. Since then, she has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphonies of Seattle, Yakima, Port Angeles and Oakland, with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the String Orchestra of the Rockies, the University of Washington Orchestra, the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra and the Orquestra Sinfonica in Mexico City. Ms. Larionoff has toured Germany and Austria with the New European Strings and has performed on tour in Japan with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra.
A Loomis Scholarship Award winner at the Juilliard School, Ms. Larionoff was a student of Dorothy DeLay. Additional teachers included Stuart Canin, Sally Thomas, Paul Doktor, Joel Krosnik and Felix Galimir. Upon graduating, Ms. Larionoff was invited by the esteemed Maestro Carlo Maria Giulini to join the violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Larionoff moved to Seattle in 1990 and served as Associate Concertmaster of the Symphony and was then appointed Concertmaster, where she was featured as soloist and leader on numerous occasions, including her critically acclaimed solo performances in the 2011 Naxos release of “Scheherazade”. In 2012 her performance of the Vasks violin concerto “Distant Light” received praise from the New York Times: “the elegant violinist Maria Larionoff was stunning, incisive and radiant.”
Ms. Larionoff’s versatility as a violist as well a violinist has led to invitations at many chamber music festivals, including the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Seattle International Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Marrowstone Music Festival, Chautauqua and the Vetta series in Vancouver, BC. She has collaborated in chamber music concerts with many distinguished artists including Emanuel Ax, Lynn Harrell, Steven Staryk, Jamie Laredo, and Glenn Dicterow.
Ms. Larionoff has served on the faculty of the University of Washington School of Music and has been a guest Artist-in-Residence at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She has taught at the Round Top Festival in Texas and the Interlochen Arts Academy and currently teaches an orchestra repertoire class and chamber music at the Seattle Conservatory of Music.
In 2001, Ms. Larionoff and her husband, doublebassist Barry Lieberman, founded The American String Project, a conductorless string orchestra made up of Concertmasters and soloists from around the world. The group received great critical acclaim both for their annual performances at Benaroya Hall, as well as for their numerous recordings. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of the String Orchestra of the Rockies, where she has completed her first successful season.
Ms. Larionoff and her duo partner, pianist Robin McCabe, recently completed their cycle of all 10 Beethoven sonatas, and are currently featured in concert on UW TV in “Beethoven Back to Back”. The popular duo perform frequently throughout the Pacific Northwest, and have been called “a glorious musical team..” by the Seattle Times.
MEDIA SPONSORS
KCTS 9 – Public Television
Classical KING FM 98.1
Tickets
Adults - $21.00 USD
Discounted - $18.00 USD
Youth 18 and under (free with paying adult) - $0.00 USD
Youth in Music Initiative: Please phone the BPA Box Office at 206.842.8569 to take advantage of this offer for youths, 18 and under.
Performances
November 9 & 10, 2019