Mobile Symphony features violinist Simone Porter in Strings Attached, March 9 & 10
The Mobile Symphony Orchestra (MSO) welcomes stellar violinist Simone Porter for Strings Attached, a concert featuring Mendelssohn’s landmark violin concerto and Schumann’s Third Symphony – Saturday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 10, at 2:30 p.m., at Mobile’s historic Saenger Theatre.
The highlight of the concert is sure to be Simone Porter’s heartfelt performance of Mendelssohn’s blockbuster violin concerto. Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity and vibrant communication. In the past few years, she has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Donald Runnicles. Born in 1996, Simone made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In March 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Mendelssohn’s concerto is often called the “heart’s jewel” for its passionate, sweeping emotions. The program opens with contemporary composer Arvo Pärt’s humorous tribute to Bach – If Bach had Raised Bees – and concludes with Schumann’s Symphony No. 3. “This concert marks the first time in many years that the Mobile Symphony has performed an orchestral work by Robert Schumann,” Music Director Scott Speck explains. “Pianists play him all the time; they know Schumann as one of the great forward-looking German Romantic masters. His four symphonies are less often played, but they are masterpieces of the burgeoning Romantic style.”
Tickets are $20-$96 and can be purchased online at mobilesymphony.org, by phone at 251-432-2010 or at the symphony box office, 257 Dauphin Street. Three-concert season memberships are $53-$216.
Student tickets are $10. Through the MSO Big Red Ticket program sponsored by the Alabama Power Foundation and the Figures Foundation, students in grades K-12
can attend any of the season’s six classical Sunday performances free when accompanied by a paying adult (excludes the holiday concert). More details can be found online at www.mobilesymphony.org.
MSO offers an informative pre-concert talk to enhance the enjoyment of classical concerts. TakeNote begins at 6:30 p.m. before Saturday performances and 1:30 p.m. before Sunday performances in Room 1927 adjacent to the Saenger entrance on Joachim Street. Alabama Public Radio’s music director David Duff will speak before this concert.
Sponsors are The J.L. Bedsole Foundation and Dick and Betsy Otts. Alabama Public Radio is the media sponsor. All concerts have been made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
