Dear Friends,

Welcome to the eighteenth season of the Ensemble Monterey Chamber orchestra! It gives me great pleasure to invite you to come with us once again on a journey of musical discovery and adventure. If you are new to Ensemble Monterey, our purpose is to offer you the highest quality performances of familiar musical compositions, and to present hidden musical treasures which you may not know, but will come to love. If you are one of our family of long-time audience members, welcome again – you will see much that is familiar, and some important changes.

These are uncertain economic times for all of us, and a unique challenge for classical music presenters. We at Ensemble Monterey do not want anyone to miss our concerts for financial reasons, and so, for the first time, we have reduced our ticket prices. In order to make this possible, we are moving most of our Monterey concerts back to our original home, the Monterey Peninsula College Music Hall. In fact, in our last audience survey, a majority of you in Monterey told us that you preferred the venerable old Music Hall because of its intimate connection with the audience, good acoustics and easy, safe parking.

Please have a look at the season line-up. You will find many of my, and I hope your favorites. Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Brahms are well represented. In between the familiar, I have blended dashes of tabasco like the incredible virtuosity of the Krommer Octet Partita, Ives’ Unanswered Question, and a Trio Sonata from our own Stephen Tosh. Our season finale concert includes the elite vocal ensemble, Cantiamo!, presenting Beethoven’s thrilling Choral Fantasie, his precursor to the Ninth Symphony. For adventure, add a Violin Concerto by Eighteenth-Century Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Virtuoso violinist, composer, conductor of one of Europe’s finest orchestras, world-champion swordsman and military commander – an African-European genius called Le Mozart Noir. His life reads like an adventure novel, and his music reflects it brilliantly.

This is a season of favorites and a season not to be missed! I sincerely hope that you will join us once again!

John Anderson
Conductor
Ensemble Monterey Chamber Orchestra

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Since its first concert in 1992, Ensemble Monterey Chamber Orchestra has enjoyed gratifying critical response.