The Symphony Silicon Valley has an origin story worth repeating. Formed in 2002 after the dissolution of the former San Jose Symphony Orchestra, the group has risen to become “the greater South Bay’s premier orchestra,” with a practical business model and programming that keeps its audience in mind. For the 2018-19 season, the ensemble sticks close to the symphonic masters, while bringing back some favorite collaborators.
The orchestra’s “Classics Season” series features six different conductors in seven programs from October to June. Carlos Vieu returns Oct. 27 and 28 with a program of Richard Strauss and Debussy, which showcases Argentine soprano Daniela Tabernig in Strauss’s Four Last Songs. Tatsuya Shimono leads two programs, in May and June, built around Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, respectively; Bay Area-native Jon Nakamatsu makes a return solo engagement with the Rachmaninoff. SSV principal clarinetist Michael Corner is the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in December, a program topped off by two favorite Mendelssohn works (the “Scottish” Symphony and A Midsummer Night’s Dream) led by English conductor William Boughton. And John Nelson and violinist Anne Akiko Meyers are the artists for a prominent March concert that includes Barber’s Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
Among the Symphony Silicon Valley debuts are conductor JoAnn Falletta, who leads the season opener on Oct. 6 and 7 — Barber, Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet, and Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony; and Daniel Meyer, who conducts Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Jon Kimura Parker) and Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony in January.
Pops fare finds a home during the holiday season. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in concert plays in November, and “Carols in the California,” an annual Christmas event featuring the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, returns in December. The SSV Chorale, directed by Elena Sharkova, makes two appearances in the “Classics” series as well, notably in June’s Beethoven finale.
Single tickets for SSV performances begin at $50, and subscriptions of four or seven concerts each are available.
