Mid-Columbia Symphony opens 2018-19 season

RICHLAND — The Mid-Columbia Symphony opens its 74th season with a concert commemorating the 100th birthday of American composer Leonard Bernstein Sept. 8. All four concerts in the 2018-19 season are at Richland High School, 930 Long Ave. in Richland. Bernstein’s most famous work is “West Side Story” and the concert will include the symphonic dances from the classic Broadway musical. The program also includes the overture from Bernstein’s operetta “Candide” and” the short piece “Slava,” written in tribute to cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. The concert finale is Bernstein’s First Symphony, “Jeremiah,” with mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski as the soloist. “Landmarks” is the theme of the 2018-19 season, and it includes plenty of landmark music from landmark composers. The Nov. 10 concert focuses on a landmark city, Rome, with excerpts from “Tosca,” Puccini’s opera set in the time of Napoleon. The program also includes the suite from the movie “La Dolce Vita” by Italian composer Nino Rota, and “Pines of Rome,” by Ottorino Respighi. Guest vocalists and the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers will join the orchestra. “Last Works” are the program for the Jan. 27 concert. It features last works from English composer Benjamin Britten (“Welcome Ode”) and Lili Boulanger (“D’un matin de printemps”), a French composer who died at 24 years of age. The “London” symphony, the last work of Franz Joseph Haydn, is the concert finale. Soprano Molly Holleran and the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers Youth Chorus will be the guest soloists. The season finale, June 1, is a performance of Symphony No. 7, the “Leningrad” Symphony, by Dimitri Shostokovich. The symphony is most famous for the performance in August 1942 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), which at the time was surrounded by Nazi German forces and had been under siege for about a year. The orchestra will host a debut concert March 23, with the musicians to be determined. The music includes Symphony No. 4 by Johannes Brahms and “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” by American composer John Adams.