Return Engagement: Michael Christie
Music Director Laureate to conduct Phoenix Symphony Oct. 9, 10.
Daron Hagen, Michael Christie and Victoria Vargas
Music Director Laureate Michael Christie will return to The Phoenix Symphony to conduct Ottorino Respighi’s most well-known and acclaimed works, the symphonic tone poems Fountains of Rome, romancing Rome’s famous fountains at different times of the day, and Pines of Rome, depicting pine trees in different locations in Rome. The performances will be Oct. 9 at 11 a.m. and Oct. 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Hall in downtown Phoenix.
The program also features the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Symphony No. 5, a work commissioned by The Phoenix Symphony Commissioning Club. Hagen was a protégé of Leonard Bernstein and the recipient of the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. Symphony No. 5 was composed in memory of his brother, Kevin Hagen, and will feature mezzo soprano Victoria Vargas.
The program opens with Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful Overture to his opera, La forza del destino or The Force of Destiny.
