Richard Taylor, Tenor 
Christina Wilcox, Mezzo-Soprano
Kevin Bell, Bass
From Mozart to Mahler, Music Director and Conductor Taavo Virkhaus will bring an eclectic evening of melody. The pristine music of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 "Praugue" will be contrasted against the lush texture of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with soprano Karen Burlingame. Miss Burlingame has sung leading roles with the Eugene Opera, Central City Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera and has been a featured soloist with the Colorado symphony Orchestra, Opera Manhattan, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra and the New Haven Chorale.
French pianist Jean-Phillipe Collard will perform the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 as part of an evening of rich programming that includes such contrasting works as the Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Weber and the impressionist music of Debussy's La Mer. The concert will be a musical gourmand's delight. Mr. Collard has appeared as a soloist with the world's greatest orchestras and conductors. A prolific recording artist with more than 50 titles to his credit, Mr. Collard has earned two "Record of the year" designations from Stereo Review.
The Ricard Strauss tone poem Till Eulenspeigal and Beethovan's eloquent Violin Concerto are the featured works in a concert design to appeal to a broad range of taste. Siberian violinistVadim Repin returns to Huntsville to perform one of the landmarks of the violin concerto literature. Rimsky-Korsakov's richly orchestrated Overtureand Wedding March from " Le Coc d'Or" and Howard Hanson's Mosaics add elements of interest to the evening.
Licia Jaskunas will perform the Concertstuck for Harp and Orchestra by French composer Bagriel Pierne. Jaskunas, who has enjoyed a distinguished career, is formarly a member of the Alabama Symphony. Robert Schumann's romantic Symphony No. 2 will close a program interspersed with the music of Edward Gieg and Stephen Paulus.
Continuing his five-year cycle of composition, Music DirectorTaavo Virkhaus premieres his Symphony No. 5 (1994). Heir to a sitinguished family of composers and conductors, Maestro Virkhaus will direct a first-ever performance for the Huntsville Symphony. violinist Leonidas Kavakos joins the orchestra from his native Greece for a brilliant performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto. The youthful Athenian has performed with major orchestras here and abroad. His playing has been described as "caressingly liyrical with impeccable technique.'
Verdi's monumental Requiem is brought to life by HSO Maestro Taavo Virkhaus, four operatic soloist, and the plus-100-voice Huntsville Community Chorus. the Verdi Requiem, subtitled the "Manzoni" for the Italian national hero in to be one of the mosr dramatic and appealing works in symphonic literature. It is as heroic as the man for whom it was highest form. An appropriately grand ending to a fabulous season!
Richard Taylor, Tenor Christina Wilcox, Mezzo-SopranoKevin Bell, Bass