Stephen Paulson's Symphony Parnassus spring concert on April 7 in Old First Church will have the group's usual rich and unusual programming. The new work is Take4 by Laura Karpman, a Los Angeles composer of film scores and concert works.
Dedicated to the composer's avid jazz fan father, the work's movements are named after such tunes as A Night in Tunisia, The Girl From Ipanema, My Favorite Things, and Festive Minor. Paulson says:
Don't expect to hear more than a passing fragment of the actual melodies; Take4 is more of an impression of these jazz tunes, each in the same key and rhythmic groove as its namesake. It is scored for four solo woodwinds and strings, and features Symphony Parnassus's own wind principals.Our concertmaster, Noemy Gagnon-Lafrenais, will be the soloist in Chausson's Poeme for Violin and Orchestra. Equally versed in violin and Baroque violin, Gagnon-Lafrenais is a fellowship student in the Chamber Music Department of the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studies with Axel Strauss.
The concert concludes with Brahms' Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11.