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The Culver City
Symphony Orchestra

P.O. Box 4846
Culver City, CA 90231
310.837.5757

e-mail:

info@culvercitysymphony.org

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Frank Fetta - Photo by David Bromberg

Recent activities of
Frank Fetta


Las Vegas Opera Festival

Conducted Sinfonia Mexicana, Vicki Carr-vocal soloist

Music Director of the Torrance Symphony

Tour of the United States Mid-West with Soprano Ruby Hindes in A Tribute to Miran Anderson

Conducted The Nutcracker with the California Theater Inland Dance Theater

Conducted Swan Lake with the State Street Ballet,
Eduardo Villa

Conducted the Finals of the Zachary Competition for Opera Vocalist

Conductor of the Marina Summer Symphony in the Summer Series at Burton Chace Park, Marina del Rey







 
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The Culver City Symphony Orchestra

2007-08 Season, 45th Anniversary Season

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On Our Way Up

Saturday, March 29, 2008, 8 P.M.

Frank Fetta-Conductor

Winners of the 2007 Parness Fund Young Artists Concerto Competition, Junior and Intermediate Division. Please go the the "Programs" page, button above, for more information.

“This performance is made possible in part by a grant from the
City of Culver City Art in Public Places Fund with support from the Sony Pictures Entertainment Platinum Sponsorship.”

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Season Finale : Saturday, June 14, 2008, 8 P.M.

Program to be announced.

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ALL CONCERTS WILL BE AT VETERAN'S MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM

4117 Overland Avenue

Culver City, CA 90230

The Corner of Overland Ave. and Culver Blvd.

contact us at:info@culvercitysymphony.org

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The president of the orchestra, Matthew Hetz, is also a composer. Two works of his will be premiered in March and April in concerts sponsored by the National Association of Composers/USA - NACUSA, which is celebrating its 75th Anniversary with a series of concerts in Southern California. For information about NACUSA please visit: http://www.music-usa.org/nacusa

One his works will be premiered at the Culver City Senior Center, 4095 Overland, Culver City, across the street from the orchestra's home: Veteran's Memorial Auditorium. The Senior Center is sponsoring a program of flute and guitar music for the series on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at 1:30 pm. Admission is free and you are welcome to talk with the composers and performers at the end of the concert.  The Culver City Senior Center phone number: 310 253 6700.

The program: Peter Yates: "5 Masks," Deon Nielsen Price: "Silver and Gold," Daniel Kessner: "Shades of Pastel," David Lefkowitz: "...Before the Solstice...," Matthew Hetz: "Tango No. 3," and Howard Quilling: "Sonatina for Flute and Guitar."

Guitar: Peter Yates - Flute: Daniel Kessner

 

An orchestra work of Hetz, Reflections in Wet Sand, will performed March 22, 2008, 7:00 pm by the Palos Verdes Regional Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Berkeley A. Price. Dr. Berkeley Price is long time Culver City resident who taught music in the CCUSD for several years.


The program is of music Bonnie Janofsky, Daniel Kessner, Adrienne Albert, Matthew Hetz, Jeannie Pool, Deon Nielsen Price, Henry Mancini, John Williams, and others. Many of these pieces are new works, and represent an exciting evening of discovery.

Tickets are $5. each. Open seating.
Advance ticket sale only. Email Jennifer: pvrotickets@live.com
A sellout crowd is expected so contact her very soon. No tickets will
be sold at the box office.

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In a unique relationship with the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors, the Culver City Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Frank Fetta moved close to the water for a series of very exciting orchestra concerts. These series of concerts are funded separately from the Culver City Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra roster is basically the same, but funding is not. While each concert was a special event, one of the highlights of the 2007 Season was Lori Stinson's performance as soprano soloist in Orff's Carmina Burana. Our night of opera with singers from Los Angeles Opera was especially moving this summer. While the Winter Season is just starting, we again look forward to those soft summer breezes off the ocean mingling with the sounds of the audience and the music.

 

For more information, please visit their Web site: marinadelrey.lacounty.gov

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ORCHESTRA OUTREACH

Through Campus Concerts, an outreach program sponsored by the Musicians Union, the Culver City Symphony Orchestra Wind Quintet performed at Farragut Elementary School, Culver City, on April 27, presenting two programs. The quintet was Pat Maki-Flute, David Kossof-Oboe, Patricia Massey-Clarinet, Nate Campbell-Horn John Campbell-Bassoon.

The Campus Concerts programs introduces students to Classical Music, the life of Mozart was featured through a musical narrative of his early life, and to some of the orchestra instruments through individual demonstration. For this program, the instruments demonstrated were the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. All the instrumentalists gave intriguing and informative demonstrations of their respective instrument. Garnering perhaps the most interest was the demonstration of a selection of Handel's Water Music played through a garden hose, with a funnel at the end, to demonstrate that if the tubing of a horn was not coiled, stretched out it would be sixteen feet long.

 

A second Campus Concert was held at El Marino Language School, Culver City, on May 30, 2007.

Hopefully the programs will open up to these students the wonders and excitement that listeners can receive from Classical Music.

There was a lot of hands in the air to answer questions, foot stomping, phantom conducting, and a whole-body-shimmy to the music. We hope we made a positive impression with the students. While geared towards the young, we feel that one is never too old to discover what Classical Music can bring into one's life. Visit one our concerts to discover the joys of music.

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ON OUR WAY UP

Our March 31, 2007, concert featured four winners from the orchestra sponsored Parness Fund Young Artists Concerto Competition. The concert featured JUNIOR DIVISION (Ages 14 and under) winner Michael Chang, Piano, performing the Kabalevsky Piano Concerto No. 3,1st Movement, and INTERMEDIATE DIVISION (Ages 15 through 18) winners Ryan Lin, Piano, performing the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2, 1st Movement; Yeri Kim, Cello, performing the Popper Hungarian Rhapsody; and Kei Sugiyama, Violin, performing the Saint Saens Violin Concerto No. 3, 1st Movement. The pianists performed on a Yamaha concert grand.

The orchestra presenters, the Westchester Symphony Society, Inc., and the orchestra, are pleased to present young artists in concerts with the orchestra. For some soloists, this is their first time performing with an orchestra, an experience we are glad to part of, as we also benefit from the energy and innate musicality of these young artists. For the Senior Division winners, it is one of their performances right before they start on their musical careers.

The Senior Division winner usually performs in a separate concert, and this year it was Felix Eisenhaur, pianist, performing the Ravel Piano Concerto in GMajor, at our November 2006 concert.

Conductor Fetta then led the orchestra through Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, Opus 46, Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6 & 8. In these folkish and peasant based dances transformed by Dvorak’s artistry to high levels, the orchestra shone, and sent the audience dancing into the night.

Please help us continue with these concerts by becoming a member of the Symphony Society (please go to the Membership page through the “Membership” link, and through donations to the Parness Fund Young Artists Concerto Competition (please go to the “Young Artists” link).

Please return to our Web site for updates to our 44th Season.

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A Mid -Winter's Concert

February 16, 2007

Veteran's Auditorium, Culver City


The second concert of our season was our annual A Mid-Winter’s Concert. The program was the Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, the Violin Concerto No. 5, A Major, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with orchestra Concertmaster Nancy Roth the soloist, and Le Tombeau de Couperin, by Maurice Ravel.

Ms. Roth presented a beautifully realized concerto, with secure technique and elegant phrasing. She used the cadenzas by Harold Wolff. Music Director Fetta led a reduced orchestra from a keyboard, a Yamaha Clavinova, in a very spirited performance of the Bach. Ravel’s tombeau. with separate dedications of the four movements to his friends killed in World War I, ended the concert. Ravel himself was an ambulance driver in that war, and personally the wars carnage and horrors. The performance captured the various moods and styles of the work which was not somber nor tragic, but is more of a celebration of his friends and of France.

A sizable audience shared the musical event. In a first for the orchestra, the concert was combined with a Culver City Chamber of Commerce mixer. Please join us for the next concert. Please join us in our next concert.

From the program book:
A MID-WINTER'S CONCERT
With the challenges we now face in our global warming winters, we can take some comfort in the Music. These concerts offer us, audience and musicians, a place of refuge in constant change. A place to just sit and listen to music during a winter's night. It is also a place to meet and socialize. We think they offer a lot, and tonight there is no admission charge. But these concerts are costly. If you are a symphony society member helping to support the this evening's concert, we thank you. If you are not a member, please join to help us continue with these musical events.

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Season Premiere, 2006-07

November 3, 2006, Veteran's Memorial Auditorium

Our first concert of the 2006-07 season focused on the continuum of music. In Culver City in 2006 we performed the Symphony No. 35, Haffner, of Mozart (1782), the Pulcinella Suite by Stravinsky (1920), and the Piano Concerto in G Major by Ravel (1932). The newest piece of music was sixty two years old, but all were made new again in the performance.

The program revolved around relations. The Ravel was chosen by the pianist Felix Eisenhauer, the Senior Division Winner of the Symphony Society produced Parness Fund Young Artists Concerto Competition. Using the concerto as a starting point, Fetta then added the works of Stravinsky and Mozart. Some of the relationships: Both Stravinsky and Ravel revered the music of Mozart. Stravinsky and Ravel knew each other and lived close to each other for a while in a small Swiss village. And, Mr. Fetta worked with Stravinsky on three recordings of the Master's music. Stravinsky's music has been a mainstay of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra, and through Conductor Fetta, there is a direct link from him to us today. Indeed, in his long life, the longest Stravinsky lived in one city was Los Angeles, living in the Hollywood Hills above the Sunset Strip. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Street.

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We Need Your Support

Please come back to our web site periodically to check on our concert schedule for our forty-fourth season during which the orchestra will bring exciting concerts to Culver City and Southern California.

If you wish to support The Culver City Symphony Orchestra, please consider becoming a member of the Symphony Society or make a donation please visit the "Membership" page so that we can continue to present these concerts.

 
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