Question: How does an orchestra top a season that ended with a debut at America’s most prestigious concert hall, a tour of the most populous country in the world and first-time exposure on national television?
Answer: You don’t top it, you celebrate all season long the fact you’ve reached another milestone. And you do it at home.
“As memorable as the way our (2017-2018) season ended, it’s not a matter of topping it but looking at it as a wonderful ‘opening’ to our season of 40 years of accomplishments — to be celebrated at home,” said Carl St.Clair, music director and conductor of Orange County’s largest and oldest orchestra,the Pacific Symphony, which opens its 40th-anniversary season Thursday, Sept. 27 through Saturday, Sept. 29.
By “home,” he referred to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (since its opening in 2006), part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. By “home,” he also meant it is not necessary to make those highlights happen abroad (China) or even elsewhere in the U. S. (Carnegie) but to celebrate this season by staying close to its home base (Orange County) and reaching out to as much of the Orange County community as possible.
But St.Clair had yet another meaning for “home.”
“As I told the musicians when we prepared to play in Carnegie Hall, ‘It really doesn’t matter where we are, anywhere in the world: when the Pacific Symphony gets together to play, we’re home,’ ” he recalled.
Founded as the Orange County Pacific Chamber Orchestra in the spring of 1978 and becoming the Orange County Pacific Symphony Orchestra by 1979 (the “Orchestra” dropping off sometime later and “Orange County” eventually turning possessive), the Pacific Symphony was one of the reasons the Segerstrom Concert Hall was built. Concerts were previously given at the former Orange County Performing Arts Center (now Segerstrom Center for the Arts); before that opened in 1986, other venues were used, such as Santa Ana High School Auditorium (now Bill Medley Auditorium), Knotts’ Berry Farm Good Time Theatre in Buena Park and Louis E. Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton.
As the 2017-2018 season was wrapping up, the orchestra’s “homes” also included: Carnegie Hall in New York City, where the orchestra gave a sold-out and well-reviewed concert in April, which celebrated the 80th birthday of iconic minimalist composer Philip Glass. The five-city tour of China in May was the Pacfic Symphony’s first tour of a foreign country since Europe (nine cities in three countries) the same year it moved to the Segerstrom Concert Hall. Another milestone was an appearance on PBS’ “Great Performances” in June, when the orchestra was seen performing Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island.”
Even St.Clair, ever looking ahead, would admit to looking back for a moment and basking in the warmth of those memories.
“Seeing that ‘SOLD OUT’ sign on 7th Avenue (where Carnegie is located), the two standing ovations and the positive review in the New York Times: I was so happy for the orchestra — and for Philip Glass,” he reminisced. “We had fun. Then we came home, played a concert, then got on a plane and flew to China. We played in five cities, came home again and then were seen on PBS.
“It was an incredible springtime, but now we’re home,” he said, re-emphasizing that word. “We want to celebrate with the Orange County community, thanking them for continuing to believe in the mission of the Pacific Symphony: to serve as a beacon of artistic achievement in Orange County, to shine forth as an artistic torchbearer, to be revered and respected by our community — locally acclaimed, nationally and internationally recognized.”
For the season-opening concert, which opens with Frank Ticheli’s “Shooting Stars,” the keyword appears to be “solo”: Olga Kern, the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist, returns to play the formidable Rachmaninov Third Concerto (“Rach 3”); Dennis Kim, the orchestra’s newest concertmaster, and Meredith Crawford, principal violist, are featured in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra; and various members of the Pacific Symphony are highlighted during the course of Ravel’s “Boléro.”
“Every time she joins us, it’s magic,” St.Clair said of the Russian-born Kern, who has collaborated with the orchestra a few times in the past. “She’s a gifted, extraordinary virtuosa. What she brings to the Russian literature is incredible.
“We begin our first complete season with our new concertmaster, Dennis Kim, who played with us a little in June, and he is paired in the Mozart with Meredith Crawford, who begins her second season as principal viola by making her solo debut with the orchestra.
“We conclude with ‘Boléro,” when we have many of our musicians featured as soloists, and during which we’ll also be presenting a multimedia retrospective showing the breadth and scope of 40 years of the Pacific Symphony.”
And yet, now is not the time for the Pacific Symphony to rest on its laurels, St.Clair said.
“There are always mountains to climb,” he pointed out. “We constantly look for ways to serve our community more effectively. We need to strengthen our community outreach. We must go as far as we can into the demographics of Orange County. We will continue commissioning new works. We have to play at a higher level of playing. It’s a continual reaching for improvement. After all, we’re representing Orange County before the rest of the cultural world.”
As St. Clair prepares for his 29th season as conductor of the Pacific Symphony, he is ever-grateful for the opportunity to be leading the fastest-growing orchestra of the past 50 years.
“It’s been a wonderful gift and a great honor to be leading these talented musicians,” he said, adding: “Together, we created a world-class orchestra in Orange County.”
Pacific Symphony
With: Carl St.Clair, conductor; Olga Kern, piano; Dennis Kim, violin; Meredith Crawford, viola.
Where: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27-Saturday, Sept. 29; 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30 (shorter program).
Tickets: $34-$210 ($30-$109 Sunday).
Information: 714-755-5799, pacificsymphony.org.