New West Symphony announces newly expanded season

New West Symphony music director Boris Brott and executive director Kenneth Hopper have announced programming for the 2005-06 season.

New West Symphony has expanded this year’s Masterpiece Series to include seven pairs of concerts with performances on Friday evenings at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center and Saturday evenings at the Countrywide Performing Arts Center at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Performances begin at 8 p.m. in both locations.

The season also includes two performances of the Guitar Center Young Artists Concert featuring the 2006 Discovery Artists and the 2006 Ventura County Honor Band. Brott will conduct all of the orchestral performances. Lawrence Stoffel, the new director of bands at Cal State University Northridge, will conduct the Honor Band.

Highlights of the expanded 2005-06 Masterpiece Series season include an opening concert featuring violinist Pinchas Zukerman and his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth, playing the Brahms "Double Concerto," the pairing of the Vivaldi "Four Seasons" with Astor Piazzolla’s tango-flavored "Cuatro estaciónes porteñas" ("The Four Seasons"), a concert honoring the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, the pairing of both Shostakovich piano concerti on the same program and the world premiere of a new work commissioned by the New West Symphony from renowned composer Bright Sheng.

Guest soloists making their New West Symphony Masterpiece Series debuts during the 2005-06 season include violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Lindsay Deutsch (a former New West Symphony Discovery Artist); and internationally acclaimed pianists Horacio Gutiérrez and Marc-André Hamlin. Making return appearances are cellist Amanda Forsyth, New West Symphony concertmaster Elizabeth Pitcairn, New West Symphony principal clarinet Gary Ginstling and pianist Arnaldo Cohen.

In announcing the 2005-06 season, Brott said, "I am very excited about our new season. Our outstanding roster of guest artists led by Pinchas Zukerman certainly reflects the symphony’s artistic growth and stature in the symphonic arena. I am sure our audiences will find the programming for the new season very intriguing with its mix of the familiar and the new. I am especially pleased that we will be offering the world premiere of a new work by Bright Sheng."

The 2005-06 Guitar Center Young Artists Concert will feature Discovery Artists Jennifer Liu of Oak Park among others making their New West Symphony debuts and pianist Tiffany Chen of Moorpark making her second appearance as a Discovery Artist.

Season brochures for 2005-06 are available at the New West Symphony office at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday or by calling (800) NEW WEST. Subscriptions for the 2005-06 Masterpiece Series and single tickets for the Guitar Center Young Artists Concert may be purchased through the symphony’s secure website at www.newwestsymphony.org or by calling the symphony ticket office.