Capping an outstanding Classics in the Cohan season, one that has seen four previous guest conductors play to near sold out audiences, standing ovations and many encores, the finale concert features the grand production of Symphony No. 2, C minor “Resurrection” by Gustav Mahler. Esteemed conductor Thomas Davies will lead a 90-piece orchestra, a combined 160-member Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo Master Chorale choir, standout Soprano Elissa Johnston and local favorite Mezzo-Soprano Jacalyn Krietzer, who ends a 36-year international professional singing career with the piece that started her career.
The Mahler Symphony No. 2 has no intermission and runs approximately an hour and twenty minutes. Prior to the concert, Board of Directors President Liz Summer and General Manager Francie Levy will announce the five Music Director finalists. Each finalist will audition by conducting a Classics in the Cohan concert for the 2016-17 season. The Saturday concert dates are October 6 and November 12, 2016 and February 4, March 11 and May 6, 2017. Tickets for the Mahler season finale concert can be purchased through the Performing Arts Center and range from $20-80. Subscriptions for the 2016-17 Classics in the Cohan season go on sale June 1 and can be purchased by calling the Symphony office at (805) 543-3533.
“The Mahler concert will be a wonderful grand finale to a superb Classics in the Cohan season,” says General Manager Francie Levy. “Maestro Davies is masterful in leading the orchestra and choirs in this haunting and complex symphony. Plus, the level of excitement that is building for next season is palpable. We are so thrilled to present the five world-renown finalists who will bring their passion and artistry to our community.”
This concert will be a family-affair as Cal Poly Director of Choir and Conducting Dr. Thomas Davies conducts his wife, Susan Azeret-Davies, part-time Cal Poly faculty instructing classical piano and accompanying, on the Forbes organ, his son, Andrew on the cello and his son, Peter, singing in the choir.
After a storied 36-year career that began with Mahler’s “Resurrection,” long-time SLO Symphony soloist, Mezzo-Soprano Jacalyn Kreitzer, heads toward retirement. She will make the Mahler concert her last singing appearance in San Luis Obispo and formally retire after 2018 performances with the Santa Rosa Symphony and at the Kennedy Center Festival of Orchestras. Kreitzer has performed around the world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, San Francisco, Geneva, Barcelona, Paris and Seattle Operas to name a few. She is the founder of Cal Poly Student Opera Theatre and lecturer of applied voice.