Symphony kicks off new season with its annual Comstock concert

The Spokane Symphony will launch the classical music season with its annual concert Monday at 6 p.m. at Comstock Park. The performance will feature conducting by music director Eckart Preu and resident conductor Morihiko Nakahara and will include classical favorites along with show tunes, film scores and patriotic music. The event will include booths sponsored by the Spokane Folklore Society where Spokane’s arts organizations provide information and schedules of their season’s events.

The symphony opens its regular season with performances Sept. 26 and 27 at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox that include Ravel’s “Bolero” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” as well as Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with soloist Pascal Rogé.

The symphony will present a Beethoven doubleheader on Oct. 10 and 11 with Beethoven overtures, two of his symphonies and two performance of his Violin Concerto with soloist Mateusz Wolski. Special prices are available for those who want to attend both performances.

Other fall soloists in the orchestra’s Classics Series include guitarist Manuel Barrueco (Oct. 24-25) and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (Nov. 21-22).

The orchestra’s SuperPops Series starts Oct. 3 with the Canadian Brass and continues Nov. 14 with the bluegrass band the Cherryholmes Family. The symphony’s annual Holiday Pops concerts (Dec. 4-6) will showcase Irish tenor Ronan Tynan.

Concerts in the Casual Classics series center on works composed in or about famous cities. The first program (Nov. 6) features “Venice – A Place Between Memory and Desire.”

The Coeur d’Alene Symphony begins its season Oct. 10 at North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium with “A Salute to America,” featuring American-made works. Music director David Demand will serve as both conductor and piano soloist.

The symphony will present a Christmas Concert with soprano soloist Dawn Wolski on Dec. 12.

The region’s chamber music performances get under way next Sunday at The Fox with a Spokane String Quartet program that includes quartets by Mozart and Copland. The quartet will be (re)joined by its founding first violinist Kelly Farris for Dvorák’s Quintet for Strings.

On Oct. 18, the quartet will perform works by Beethoven, Turina and Borodin.

Allegro – Baroque and Beyond plans a season of concerts featuring the music of a country or a single city.

Its season opens Sept. 18 at the Bing Crosby Theater with “Rule! Britannia,” featuring soprano Diane Reich, baritone Steven Mortier, oboist David Dutton and pianist Yi-chun Chen.

Allegro’s Music in Historic Homes, featuring musical performances followed by a tour, gets under way at the Leuthold House, 506 W. Sumner Ave., on Dec. 8-10.

The University of Idaho’s Auditorium Chamber Music Series opens Sept. 15 with The Tudor Choir, a Seattle chamber choir performing English sacred and secular works from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

On Oct. 27, the Moscow series will bring performers from New York’s famed Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, playing works by Debussy and Ravel along with Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.”

Spokane Opera celebrates its 25th anniversary Oct. 31 at The Fox with a concert of arias, songs and ensembles from operas, operettas and Broadway musicals, sung by 17 of the company’s current performers and alumni.

Its traditional New Year’s Eve “Diamonds and Divas” gala at The Davenport Hotel will be themed “Passport to Poland,” featuring the husband-and-wife Wolskis.

Coeur d’Alene Opera opens its season with two performances of Rossini’s “Cenerentola” on Sept. 25 and 27 at Schuler Auditorium.