Fri 11/7 @ 7:30PM
The Akron Symphony is joining with another venerable Akron classical music organization, the Tuesday Musical Association, to present a concert that’s neither on Tuesday nor on the Akron Symphony’s traditional Saturday night.
Instead the symphony will be taking the stage of E.J. Thomas Hall on a Friday to host guest artist, violinist Joshua Bell, in his first appearance ever with the Akron Symphony. Bell, who at age 46 is one of the world’s preeminent violinists, had the good fortune to be born in Bloomington, Indiana, home to the internationally renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. So he had no problem finding teachers who nurtured his talents, and he eventually earned a degree from IU.
But by his early teens he was performing with major orchestras, and he made his Carnegie Hall debut at 17, already on course to greatness. Since then he’s played with orchestras all over the world, made dozens of albums and was named music director of the London-based chamber orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, three years ago. (They will be performing at E.J Thomas Hall for the Tuesday Musical Association on Tue 5/5/15).
Akron Symphony music director Christopher Wilkins will lead the orchestra as they kick things off in a Russian mood with Mikhail Glinka’s Russlan and Ludmilla overture, followed by Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Bell will then join Wilkins and the orchestra for Max Bruch’s well-known and popular 1866 Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. He’s certainly familiar enough with the piece; it was one of the earliest albums he recorded, back in 1988.
Tickets are $25-$60.