Enter the world of fairy tales and you’ll find yourself surrounded by rules. Don’t lie or no one will believe you when you tell the truth. Don’t tell someone you can spin straw into gold when you can’t. And if
The Many Tales of The Firebird
“Scheherazade”: A Masterwork Inspired by 1,000 Stories—and a Heart Attack
With such a plain spoken title, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade (1888) has to be programmatic music, right? A retelling of stories from the Thousand and One Nights? Well, yes…and no. Richard Strauss, master of programmatic music, famously said “I could set
Beyond the Notes: Maestro Shelley Breathes New Life into Beethoven’s Fifth
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is one of, if not THE, most familiar pieces of music in history. With so much cultural awareness attached to it, a conductor is posed with an interesting puzzle: how do you make it come alive for an audience that’s heard it 1,000 times before?
Introducing Pacific Symphony’s Next Artistic and Music Director Alexander Shelley
Pacific Symphony Board Chair Arthur Ong and President and CEO John Forsyte are pleased to announce the appointment of Alexander Shelley as the orchestra’s third Music Director, beginning in the 2026-27 season, for an initial five-year term…
Meet Guest Conductor Alexander Shelley
You can experience Alexander Shelley’s conducting (Nov. 30, Dec. 1-2) when he leads Pacific Symphony in a program that holds Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, Gubaidulina’s “Fairytale Poem,” and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with French pianist David Fray….