There is a tricky announcement from Michael Morgan's Oakland East Bay Symphony, saying the orchestra opens the 2015-2016 season on Oct. 2 "with a new name." That would be "Oakland Symphony," and thereby hangs a tale.
Oakland Symphony was the city's proud cultural asset, founded in 1933, reaching its zenith in the 1960s, giving local and even world premieres by such composers as Darius Milhaud, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Hans Werner Henze. In 1972, the orchestra restored the Paramount Theater — still its home — and in 1978, appointed as its music director Calvin Simmons, a young, acclaimed musician who was among the first African-Americans in such a position.
Simmons' career came to a sudden and tragic end in 1982 when he drowned in a boating accident at age 32. Leonard Slatkin and Richard Buckley followed in troubled times, and in 1986, a labor dispute and bankruptcy forced the orchestra to close. The name was carried on by two surviving auxiliary organizations, the Oakland Symphony Chorus and Oakland Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Some of the musicians, whose demand for salary parity with the San Francisco Symphony was a major cause of the labor dispute leading to the orchestra's bankruptcy, regrouped in 1988 and formed OEBS, led by Morgan, who became music director in 1990.
So the "new name" is just the good, old one, replaced for some years with the awkward but legally-financially necessary "OEBS." In both identies, the orchestra has been a force for new music, and it's illustrated by the program for the season-opener, showcasing the West Coast premiere of Mason Bates' Devil’s Radio. Morgan is also conducting the Prokofiev Violin Concerto, with soloist Kenneth Renshaw, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, and selections from Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes, with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, conducted by Lynne Morrow — who is celebrating her 10th year with the Chorus.
The second subscription concert, on Nov. 13, will offer the Bach/Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 (Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, soloist), and Victor Bendix's 1895 Symphony No. 3.
Following the orchestra's exploration of ethnic music, on Feb. 12, it's "Notes from Vietnam," featuring Emmy Award-winner, Academy Award contributing composer and Vietnamese dan tranh (zither) virtuoso Vân-Ánh Võ in the world premiere of her Lullaby for a Country. Also on the program, the debut of the winner of the Symphony's biennial Young Artist Competition and Dvorák's Carnival Overture.
New music also prevails at the season's last two concerts. The March 18 concert includes the world premiere of Martin Rokeach's Piccolo Concerto (Amy Likar, soloist), along with the Cherubini Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 2. The May 20 concert features John Adams' The Dharma at Big Sur (Tracy Silverman, electric violin) along with Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Ravel's La Valse.