Summer Wolfgang Wednesdays Debuts At Hochstein With RPO’s Juliana Athayde

Rochester, NY – The huge popularity and remarkable variety of works by Wolfgang Amadè Mozart will take center stage next month in two concerts by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as part of its new summer Wolfgang Wednesdays at the Performance Hall at Hochstein.  On Wednesday, July 8 at 7:30 pm, Christopher Seaman and the RPO show off a sampling of musical contributions from the great composer’s more than 600 works, with RPO Concertmaster Juliana Athayde (The Caroline W. Gannett & Clayla Ward Chair) in the solo spot. The next Wolfgang Wednesday will take place on Wednesday, July 15 featuring RPO Principal Clarinetist Kenneth Grant.

 

Each of the two concerts will feature a Mozart opera overture, a concerto with an RPO soloist, and a complete symphony.  The first concert opens with the Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782), written when Mozart was 26, followed by a performance of his Violin Concerto No. 3 (1775), written for his own solo performances, and culminating in Symphony No. 40 (the “Great” in G minor), composed in 1788.  This last piece was written during a particularly dark period in the young composer’s life, and is considered to be one of the most passionate and intensely emotional of all his works. 

 

Juliana Athayde was appointed RPO Concertmaster in March, 2005.  Prior to joining the RPO, Ms. Athayde was concertmaster of the Canton (Ohio) and Plymouth (Mich.) symphonies.  Ms. Athayde has performed as a soloist with the Asheville, Canton, Diablo, Flint, Mid-Texas, Palo Alto, Plymouth and Wyoming symphony orchestras as well as the RPO. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she began her studies as a Suzuki student at the age of two, made her solo debut at 16 with the San Francisco Symphony, and earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan. She went on to earn a Master of Music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music and in 2005 became the first graduate of CIM’s Concertmaster Academy.

 

This concert is made possible with support from The Mozart Performance Fund: Sarah D. Atkinson, M.D. and Steven Hess. General Admission tickets for these performances are $20 each or $36 for both concerts, available online 24/7 at www.rpo.org; by phone (454-2100); in-person from the RPO Box Office, 108 East Avenue, 10:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday-Friday.  Tickets also can be purchased seven days a week at area Wegmans.  A convenience fee may apply.  

 

###