Albany Symphony Orchestra opens season with ‘A Salute to America’

ALBANY — The Albany Symphony Orchestra will open its 2016-17 performance season — Symphonic Excursions — Saturday evening with “A Salute to America,” an event that will incorporate some Asian flair.

Joining the symphony at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Albany Municipal Auditorium will be Steinway artist Kadisha Onalbayeva and the Kazakh National String Quartet. Albany area music lovers will hear the guest artists more than a week before they perform in New York City.

“She (Onalbayeva) and the quartet will make their Carnegie Hall debut on Nov. 21, piano and four strings quintet,” Albany Symphony Music Director and Conductor Claire Fox Hillard said last week.

Onalbayeva facilitated getting the national string quartet of Kazakhstan, a landlocked nation located in northern-central Asia and eastern Europe, to Albany, Hillard said.

“She’s Khazakh, and she teaches at Mobile (Ala.),” he said. “She’s been instrumental in getting all this arranged.” The first pianist from Kazakhstan to be named a Steinway Artist, Onalbayeva performed with the Albany Symphony last year. In addition to the United States and Kazakhstan, she has performed in Central Asia, Austria, England, Russia and Uzbekistan.

She began her musical training at age 5 and graduated from Jubanov Special School for Talented Children in Almaty, Kazakhstan, then attended the Kurmangazy National Conservatory of Music. She earned to master of music degree in both composition and piano performance at the University of New Orleans.

Onalbayeva has a doctorate in musical arts from Louisiana State University and serves in a faculty position at the University of Mobile. She also is president of the Gulf Coast Steinway Society, which includes Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

The symphony season is getting under way later than in years past, which was part of the symphony association’s efforts to get more of the needed funding ahead of the season. The ASO already has conducted its main fall fundraiser and opened its Sunday afternoon chamber music series on Oct. 23.

And while Symphonic Excursions is the symphony’s theme for 2016-17, it’s focusing on America with the opening concert, which comes the day after Veterans Day.

“This first one happens to be around Veterans Day, so we’re doing ‘A Salute to America’ and to the veterans and the armed forces,” Hillard said.

Onalbayeva will perform with the ASO on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and the orchestra will perform Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”

“Some may not be that familiar with Copland, but people will recognize ‘Appalachian Spring’ when they hear it,” Hillard said. “These are both uniquely American works that we’re performing before we embark on our excursions.”

Onalbayeva also will perform with the orchestra on “Rhapsody,” a companion piece to “Rhapsody in Blue” written by Kazahk composer Artyk Toxanbay, who is scheduled to be in attendance Saturday.

Asian influence also will come in the ASO’s performance of Russian composer Lev Knipper’s “Radif,” during which the orchestra will be joined by the Kazakh National String Quartet. Hillard said the Radif suite is written in an Iranian style.

“Pieces for string quartets to perform with orchestras are fairly rare,” Hillard said. “The quartet suggested it, so I took a look at it and thought it would be a good one to do.”

Hillard said he hoped the patriotic theme, the popularity of “Rhapsody in Blue” and the opportunity to hear the guest performers before they debut at Carnegie Hall will combine to draw a good crowd to the concert.

“I think it will, with the popularity of ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ the salute to America, the veterans theme. … I hope everyone and their families will come out and attend,” he said.

He added that he and the musicians were ready to get started on the season.

“We are ready to get going,” Hillard said. “This (later start) is moving us toward being on a better cycle for funding events and for funding seasons as part of our five-year strategic plan.”

The symphony has planned a couple of Sunday-afternoon excursions this season, the first scheduled Nov. 13. The ASO, along with Onalbayeva, will perform the “A Salute to America” program again at 2 p.m. at Bainbridge State College’s Fine Arts Center. The Kazakh quartet will not make the trip to Bainbridge.

For Saturday’s concert, doors at the Municipal Auditorium open at 6 p.m. with Hillard and the guest performers speaking with the audience at 6:30 p.m. in the Pre-Concert Notes session, which is free with admission. General admission tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students. Audience members also can purchase a $20 ticket for the Conductor’s Circle, a post-concert reception with the musicians and guest performers at the Albany Area Arts Council headquarters next door to the auditorium. Season tickets for the concerts and Conductor’s Circle also are available.

Future concerts for the ASO this season include “A Romantic Evening,” featuring German Romance music and guest performers the Transatlantic French Horn Quartet on Feb. 14, and “A French Excursion” on March 25 that will include guest performers from community and college choral groups. Each concert starts at 7:30 p.m. and is at the Albany auditorium.

For ticket information, contact the ASO at (229) 430-8933 or visit albanysymphony.org.