Lansing Symphony Orchestra announces 2010-11 season

Lansinghas produced its share of talented musicians, and many of them have moved on toother cities in search of new opportunities. Timothy Muffitt’s mission: Bring‘em back home. That’sone of what Muffitt calls the “unspoken themes” of the 2010-11 Lansing SymphonyOrchestra season, Muffitt’s fifth as music director/conductor of the LSO.

“Thepurpose of music programs in school, of course, is to develop the person, notto make them into a professional musician,” Muffitt said. “But it’s a nicefringe benefit when we have these people who come through these programs and goon to become successful. So we’re celebrating home-grown talent.”

Thecelebration begins with the opening MasterWorks concert of the season on Sept.10. The guest artists will be themembers of Trio Terzetto, featuring Okemos native and celebrated cellist TanyaEll.

ViolinistMelissa White — one-time concertmaster of the Lansing Junior Symphony and now amember of the Harlem Quintet — performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at thefifth MasterWorks concert on March 26. Glenn Seven Allen, the tenor who’ll jointhe LSO for their holiday Pops on Dec. 12, “is a graduate of East Lansing High School who has gone onto become successful in theater and opera,” Muffitt said.

Muffittis equally excited about the other guest artists on the roster for the nextseason. “Michael Gurt is an absolutely electrifying pianist,” he said of theguest artist for the Oct. 1 MasterWorks concert who will perform Tchiakovsky’sPiano Concerto No. 1. “No one has ever heard that piece the way he’s going toplay it.”

YolandaKondonassis, who’ll join the LSO for the Jan. 8 MasterWorks program, is “one ofmost sought-after harpists on the planet. She’ll be playing two extraordinarypieces,” Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra and Debussy’s DansesSacree et Profane.

“Toclose our season, we have the truly extraordinary Anton Nel,” Muffitt said. “Idid a concert with him and the San Francisco Symphony, and he’s a beautifulpianist.”

Nelwill be spotlighted April 16 in an evening that explores what Muffitt calls“one of the really remarkable relationships in music: Ravel and (George)Gershwin. They were great admirers of each other. Gershwin invited Ravel tocome to New York and took him to Harlem to hear jazz on its home turf. You canhear Ravel in Gershwin’s music and Gershwin in Ravel’s music, so I thought itwould be interesting to pair their music on a program.”

Although he’s proud of the upcomingseason, Muffitt said the LSO has not been spared some of the financialheadaches and difficult choices brought about by cuts in arts funding. “We have to watch the bottom line very,very carefully,” he said. “It’s precarious — that’s the reality.

“Weas an organization are obviously operating with maximum efficiency, and we’reable to make it work because everyone’s giving everything they’ve got. What wewon’t do is sacrifice on the quality of what we do.”

Oneevent that fell by the wayside: the annual Halloween family concert. “That’s ahuge loss,” Muffitt said, “because to me that’s a part of what we want to be,to be engaging families in that way.”

However,the LSO will be continuing its series of family concerts; Muffitt said lastseason’s concerts brought in 3,000 schoolchildren. “Our educational initiativeremains strong, but we have to be practical,” he said. “We’re maintaining abroad interface with many different kinds of music and many different kinds ofprograms while maintaining the quality.“

2010/2011 MasterWorks Series

(All concerts at Wharton Center forPerforming Arts. Six-concert subscriptions to the MasterWorks Series range from$66 to $252. Four-concert Sampler subscriptions range from $44 to $164. Singletickets start at $12.)

8p.m. Saturday, September 10

MasterWorks1: Beethoven’s Triple

Conductor:Timothy Muffitt

Guest:Trio Terzetto, featuring cellist and Okemos native Tanya Ell

Programhighlights: Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Overture to Donna Diana; Beethoven’sTriple; Brahms’ Symphony No. 2

8 p.m. Friday,October 1

MasterWorks 2:Tchaikovsky & Sibelius

Conductor:Timothy Muffitt

Guest:Michael Gurt, pianist

Programhighlights: Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis;Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1; Sibelius, Symphony No. 5

8 p.m.Saturday, December 4

MasterWorks3: Songs of Winter

Conductor:David Rayl, Guest Conductor

Guest:David Small, baritone

Programhighlights: Vivaldi, “Winter”; Rutter, When Icicles Hang; Bloch, Sacred Service

8 p.m. Saturday,January 8

MasterWorks4: Exotic Sketches

Conductor:Timothy Muffitt

Guest:Yolanda Kondonassis, harpist

Programhighlights: Ginastera, Concerto for Harp and Orchestra; Rossini, Overture to LaGazza Ladra; Debussy, Danses Sacre et Profane; Respighi, Pines of Rome

8 p.m. Saturday, March 26

MasterWorks 5:Passion & Fury

Conductor:Timothy Muffitt

Guest:Lansing native Melissa White, violinist

Programhighlights: Mendelssohn, Violin Concerto; Haydn, Symphony No. 49 “La Passione”;selections from Wagner’s Ring Cycle, including “Ride of the Valkyries”

8 p.m. Saturday, April 16

MasterWorks 6:Exploring Gershwin & Ravel

Conductor:Timothy Muffitt

Guest:Anton Nel, pianist

Programhighlights: Gershwin, Cuban Overture; Ravel, Piano Concerto and Piano Concertofor the Left Hand; Gershwin, An American in Paris

2010/2011 Pops Series

(All concerts at Wharton Center forPerforming Arts. Three-concert subscriptions to the Pop Series range from $33to $108. Single tickets start at$12.)

8p.m. Friday, October 15: Cirque de la Symphonie

3 p.m. Sunday,December 12: Holiday Pops, featuring East Lansing native Glenn Seven Allen

8p.m. Friday, February 24: Spectrum: The Music of Motown

2010/2011Chamber Series

(Four-concertsubscriptions to the Chamber Series are $56 for adults and $28 for students.Single tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students.)

3p.m. Sunday, September 19, Plymouth Congregational Church: Icarus, featuringflutist Richard Sherman, cellist Robert DeMaine and pianist James Wilhelmsen

3p.m. Sunday, November 7, Plymouth Congregational Church: “A Bundle of Sticks,”featuring bassoonist Michael Kroth

8p.m. Saturday, February 12 and 3 p.m. Sunday, February 13 at Dart Auditorium,Lansing Community College: CONNECT: Lansing Symphony & Happendance

3p.m. Sunday, March 13, Plymouth Congregational Church: Arcos Trio, featuringviolinist Seunghee Lee, cellist Carl Donakowski and pianist Anthony Padilla.

2010/2011 Big Band Concerts

(Ticketsare $15 for adults and $10 for students.)

3 p.m. Sunday,October 10 and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 6, Dart Auditorium, Lansing CommunityCollege

Lansing Symphonyand Michigan State University College of Music

7 p.m. Sunday,April 10, St. Mary Cathedral, Lansing: Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, featuring theMSU University Chorale

Lansing Symphony: Behind the Scenes

6p.m. Thursday, March 24, Wharton Center for Performing Arts

Ticket Information

Subscriptionsgo on sale Monday, April 19; call (517) 487-5001. First-time subscribers areeligible for a 25 percent discount on their subscription. Subscription renewalsare available by phone or mail.

Single tickets go on sale July 1 by phoneor at www.LansingSymphony.org.