"It's a bigger and more robust season than we've ever had," trumpets the Green Music Center 2015-2016 season announcement.
Under the leadership of Co-Executive Director Zarin Mehta, plans span chamber music, vocal recitals, orchestras, violin and piano recitals, world music, and jazz.
The season also will mark the first full program for the new 240-seat Schroeder Hall, including a nine-concert chamber-music festival curated by Jeffrey Kahane, a cabaret series, and various chamber and organ concerts.
Next summer, 1,400-seat Weill Hall will often have the back wall open to the lawn, which can accommodate an audience of thousands.
Concert schedules usually are set up years in advance, so when Mehta, 76, came to Sonoma at the beginning of 2014 — after heading the New York Philharmonic for 12 years — he had only limited impact on the current season. But, after a year and a half, he says:
I was able to plan the 2015–16 season, informed by the successes of our previous seasons. I’ve been able to confidently program more performances in Weill Hall than ever before that I trust will be of interest to our audiences. The next season will include a minimum of 39 concerts. To look at even a brief slice of our lineup: Anoushka Shankar, followed by Chick Corea & Béla Fleck, Zap Mama, [violinist] Midori, and then [baritone] Matthias Goerne singing Die schöne Müllerin, all in the span of 10 days — this gives a sense of the type of variety we have been able to achieve."
Mainstage attractions include Lang Lang, Joshua Bell, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Juilliard String Quartet, James and Jeanne Galway, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and much more.
For the complete season, see the event calendar.
Mehta — sharing the top position with Chief Financial Officer Larry Furukawa-Schlereth — is running the Green Center, with approximately a $9 million operating budget, receiving a salary of $300,000, funded mostly by Green Center Board Chair Sanford I. Weill; at the Philharmonic, where the budget is $72 million, Mehta's salary was over $1 million. An unusual feature of the arrangement to attract Mehta to Sonoma is that he is not expected to move, but will maintain his Chicago residence and may continue his involvement with several prominent music organizations he has been advising.