Sammamish Symphony: Humor – Mankind's Greatest Gift
$20 ($15 student/senior, $10 child)
- Stacey Mastrian, soprano
Gioachino Rossini — Overture to Il Signore Bruschino
Peter Schickele — Quodlibet For Small Orchestra
Various — Selected works (for soprano & orchestra, TBA)
The Sammamish Symphony takes a delightful look at musical humor as exemplified by some major creative figures. Joseph Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony (No. 94) is a longtime audience favorite due to its famous rude awakening to those who nodded off during his slow movements.
Gioachino Rossini, whose operatic output contains some of the medium's funniest scores and librettos, is represented by the overture to Il Signor Bruschino, which contains some unexpected percussive effects from the orchestra's string section.
Peter Schickele, the mastermind behind the works of P. D. Q. Bach, is the party responsible for Quodlibet, a melange of themes gleefully stolen from everything from Beethoven symphonies to Tea for Two.
Our special guest artist, soprano Stacey Mastrian, will present a bouquet of humorous songs spanning several centuries, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure.
If tickets are sold out online or sales have ended, we will have tickets available at the door. Please join us!
About Stacey Mastrian, soprano
Stacey Mastrian, a "manifestly courageous" (Boston Globe) soprano who is "versatile and passionate" (Der Tagesspiegel), has sung at the Konzerthaus (Berlin), Kennedy Center (DC), Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur (Montréal), Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (NYC), St. Peter's (Vatican City), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), and in Mexico and more than half of the U.S., including on KING FM and other broadcasts. She sings in over two dozen languages, spanning 900 years from Hildegard von Bingen to Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, and beyond. At Benaroya Hall in Spring 2024, she sang "Democracy" in the West Coast premiere of the voting-rights cantata Say Your Name by Reena Esmail with Kirkland Choral Society and Philharmonia Northwest. She has also sung Orff's Carmina Burana, Sibelius' Luonnotar, as well as the U.S. premiere of Grace Williams' Fairest of Stars with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and Finzi's Dies Natalis with the Federal Way Symphony.
Stacey has been a Fulbright grantee and awarded prizes from The American Prize, Chamber Orchestra of NY, Seattle Opera Guild, and Vocal Arts DC, and her Sonnets and Fables CD has been hailed for "penetrating insight, unfailing musicality, and vocal beauty" (Journal of Singing). Dr. Mastrian has taught at American University, Gettysburg College, Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Maryland; she currently teaches voice, diction, and anatomy online, in Redmond and north Seattle, for Keystone Opera, Midsummer Musical Retreat, and as a guest clinician.
https://www.staceymastrian.com/Eastlake Performing Arts Center
Eastlake High School, 400 228th Ave. NESammamish, WA 98075
United States