Culver City Observer -

The Culver City Symphony Orchestra will present a free concert on Saturday, February 11 with exceptionally beautiful music, featuring a remarkable young competition winner and acclaimed conductor Clyde Mitchell.

Abriana Church, the Senior winner of the 2019 Parness Concerto Competition, will play Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto #2. The concerto presents some of the most dramatic music in Prokofiev’s piano concertos. Its technical demands are immense, and Church meets these with displays of brilliancy. Abriana was studying at Master’s University when she won the competition. Her performance with the Symphony was delayed due to covid.

Maestro Clyde Mitchell will open the concert with excerpts from Peter Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet, Swan Lake. After the intermission he will conduct one of the most popular symphonies of all time, the melodic and lyrical Symphony #9 “From the New World”, by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. Dvorak wrote this symphony during a three year stay in America, including a trip to Iowa. Dvorak was highly interested in both Native American music and African-American spirituals, which he viewed as a well for new American music. Although he stated that the melodies in the symphony were original, he acknowledged the influence of these two musical traditions.

The free performance will be at The Robert Frost Auditorium at Culver City High School at 7:30 pm, 4401 Elenda St., Culver City. Free parking is available at the high school lot.

Clyde Mitchell is one of the three finalists for the permanent Music Director-Conductor position with the Culver City Symphony Orchestra and the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony. He was an accomplished French horn player, including as Principal Horn of the Montréal Symphony, before turning to conducting. He was the Resident Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony for nine seasons and is currently Music Director of the Lions Gate Sinfonia and Youth Orchestra of North Vancouver, Canada. He has been a guest conductor for the Toronto and Montréal Symphonies and other Canadian orchestras as well as numerous engagements in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States.

Mitchell lives in the Los Angeles area and in 2022 he was a guest conductor for the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony.

The other two finalists are Maxim Kuzin, who conducted “A Celebration of Dance” in December, and Steven Allen Fox, who will conduct the final concert of the year on June 24. A concert at the Kirk Douglas Theatre is also scheduled for May 6.

The Culver City Symphony’s 2022-23 concert season is made possible, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture; by the City of Culver City and its Cultural Arts Foundation, with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Cultural Arts Foundation; and the generous donations of individual members of the SoCal Symphony Society.

For more symphony information go to http://www.culvercitysymphony.org

For comments, contact Stephen Turk, President, at 213-300-4149 or info@culvercitysymphony.org