Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra

For the opening concert of the 98th season of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, new music director Julian Kuerti will conduct two perrenial French favorites: the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz, and the Piano Concerto in G by Maurice Ravel, which will feature soloist Di Wu. Wu and concertmaster Jun-Ching Lin have an animated discussion about their experiences as musicians, their affinity for Ravel, and how performing on stage can give life meaning.

Julian Kuerti says he developed his feeling of "what's right" in music as a child listening to his musician parents - concert pianist Anton Kuerti and cellist Kristine Bogyo - rehearse at home in Toronto. In an interview with Cara Lieurance, Kuerti talks about some of the reasons he became a conductor over becoming a mathemetician, and how his studies in Berlin helped focus his talent and energy.

Kuerti describes the two big works on the program - Beethoven's "Triple" Concerto and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 - in terms of their history, construction, and special features.

On tomorrow's Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra concert, both violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges will appear as soloists, in two works by Leonard Bernstein: his Serenade after Plato's Symposium for violin, strings & percussion; and the Symphony No. 1 'Jeremiah.' They discuss the two works, and how they each prepared for their roles in front of the orchestra.

The Bernstein's 100th​ concert is at 8 pm Saturday, March 24 in Miller Auditorium. Tickets and more details available at the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra website. 

Stilian Kirov, the Bulgarian-born, Juilliard-trained conductor who currently helms three American regional orchestras, previews the works on the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra's next concert with Cara Lieurance. The concert will pay tribute to Leonard Bernstein in the 100th anniversary of his birth; they discuss two of his most virtuosic works - the Serenade After Plato's Symposium and the Symphony No. 1 'Jeremiah.'

Stilian Kirov is a candidate to become the next music director of the KSO. 

Andrew Grams, who is music director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and one of the finalists for the music director position with the Kalamazoo Symphony, talks about the many facets of the job in a pre-concert interview with Cara Lieurance. Joining them is cellist and finalist of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, Pablo Ferrandez-Castro. He will perform Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major. During the concerto, Ferrandez-Castro will improvise his cadenzas, a skill common in Haydn's time, but less so today. Mozart's Overture to the Magic Flute and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 are also on the program. The concert begins at 8 pm Saturday, in Chenery Auditorium.