Sundays @Soka Presents Pacific Symphony featuring New Concertmaster Dennis Kim

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Performing Arts Center

Image of Pacific Symphony and Dennis Kim

Sundays @Soka with the Pacific Symphony returns to the acoustically brilliant Soka Performing Arts Center for a series of three intimate performances this year. The Sunday, November 18 performance will introduce audiences to Pacific Symphony’s new concertmaster, Dennis Kim.

Principal Trumpeter Barry Perkins takes center stage in Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. Then, Pacific Symphony’s new concertmaster, Dennis Kim, and Principal Violist Meredith Crawford are featured soloists in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. Considered “one of the most successful concertmasters in the world today,” (Royal Conservatory of Music) Kim was most recently concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Tickets are $56 for adults; and $46 for students, seniors, and active military families. Sunday @Soka Series tickets are $126 for adults; and $105 for students, seniors, and active military families. Group tickets (10+) are $44 per person. Purchase tickets online or by calling 949-480-4ART (4278).

About Sundays @Soka

Sundays @Soka is a series of 70-minute, informal concerts by Pacific Symphony that have proved to be popular for both newcomers and longtime aficionados of classical music. Conductor and music director Carl St.Clair brings his vast knowledge of musical history to life with both his comments and baton. The two other concerts in the series will be February 10 and March 31 when maestro St. Clair will present two full programs of Schubert and Chopin.

The Sunday, November 13 performance will introduce Pacific Symphony’s new concertmaster, Dennis Kim who will lead the orchestra in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and will also feature principal violist Meredith Crawford. Considered “one of the most successful concertmasters in the world today,” (Royal Conservatory of Music) Mr. Kim was most recently concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic. Ms. Crawford also performs with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Riverside Philharmonic (as principal viola), Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Irvine’s Mozart Classical Orchestra.

Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto will feature the principal trumpet of Pacific Symphony since 2004, Barry Perkins, who has been hailed as “fearless,” “first-rate” and “phenomenal” by The Orange County Register and the Generalanzeiger (Cologne, Germany).

About Pacific Symphony

Led by Music Director Carl St.Clair since 1990, the Pacific Symphony has been the resident orchestra of Orange County’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall for more than a decade. Currently, in its 39th season, the symphony is the largest orchestra formed in the US in the last 50 years. It is not only a fixture of musical life in Southern California but also recognized as an outstanding ensemble making strides on both the national and international scene. In Orange County, the orchestra presents over 100 concerts and events each year, as well as a rich array of education and community engagement programs, reaching more than 300,000 residents of all ages.

The Symphony offers repertoire that ranges from the great orchestral masterworks to music from today’s most prominent composers. Seven seasons ago, the symphony launched the highly successful opera initiative Symphonic Voices, which continued in February 2018 with Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. It also offers a popular pops season, enhanced by state-of-the-art video and sound, led by Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman. Each symphony season also includes Café Ludwig, a chamber music series; an educational Family Musical Mornings series; and Sunday Casual Connections, an orchestral matinee series that offers rich explorations of selected works led by Mr. St.Clair.

The Pacific Symphony’s discography comprises 15 recordings, which feature 20th- and 21st-century music by American composers, including William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Richard Danielpour. In 2012 for Naxos, Mr. St.Clair and the orchestra recorded Philip Glass’s The Passion of Ramakrishna, a Pacific Symphony commission. The Symphony has also recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Koch International Classics, Reference Recordings, and Sony Classical, among other labels.

The Pacific Symphony has been recognized with multiple ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming and included among the country’s five most innovative orchestras by the League of American Orchestras. The Symphony’s education and community engagement activities have also been recognized by the league as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

About Soka Performing Arts Center

Entering its eighth season of presenting the best of live performances on its extraordinary stage, Soka Performing Arts is on the campus of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California. Now under the leadership of General Manager Renee Bodie, the 1,000-seat concert hall features world-class acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, acoustic designer of noted performance venues like Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

Designed truly to reflect the university’s commitment to sustainability, the concert hall and adjacent Maathai Hall (featuring a black box theatre and dance studio) have been built to Gold LEED standards and feature vegetated green roofs. Photovoltaic cells on the Soka Performing Arts Center roof generate approximately 15% of the facility’s electrical needs.

Soka University of America is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate program. The university is open to top students of all nationalities and beliefs and was founded upon the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights, and the sanctity of life.