OCC Symphony, Choral Ensembles to Open Season with Mozart, Reger

The Orange Coast College Symphony and Choral Ensembles will join forces with violinist Sam Yoon for a season-opening celebration on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert B. Moore Theatre.

Musicians will perform works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Max Reger, led by OCC Symphony Conductor Maxim Kuzin.

“We are working on presenting Mozart’s two symphonies No. 1 and No. 29. Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 was composed when the composer was only eight years old. However, he was already famous as a child prodigy keyboardist throughout Europe performing for royalty,” explains Kuzin. “This rarely performed symphony is full of lovely and pleasant tunes. However, despite the musical influences of Mozart’s father Leopold and one of the Bach’s sons, Johann Christian, the second movement of the three-movement composition is already bearing some traits of Mozart’s future dramatic music.”

The performance of Mozart’s works will be contrasted with two pieces by Reger, featuring longtime concertmaster and guest performer, Sam Yoon.

“We will present a dream-like Aria and the composer's Variations on a Theme by Corelli (‘La Folia’),” says Kuzin. “The latter famous melody, originally composed by Italian composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli, has had multiple re-arrangements by many different composers since 1700. Sam-Yoon and the OCC Symphony will present a rare version of this piece by Reger.”

The evening will end with a glorious rendition of the “Alleluia” from Mozart’s Regina Coeli in C Major, with soprano Autry Harper as soloist.

The choral ensembles are made up of students, while the Symphony mostly consists of musicians from the community, with some student instrumentalists as well.

“We’ll have about 90 students singing,” says OCC Director of Choral Activities Eliza Rubenstein. “We try to get as many of our student performers on stage as possible, to kick off the year.”

Tickets for the performance run $15 for the general public, and $10 with a student ID. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the OCC Bursar’s Office, located in the Clark Center, or at www.occtickets.com