Passion

Lubbock-The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra celebrates the opening of its 61^st season, Global Journeys led by our new conductor, Tomasz Golka with Passion of the Slavic Soul Friday and Saturday, September 21 and 22 at 8 pm at the Civic Center Theatre. This season's voyage will take you to many exciting and exotic places around the world. Your first destination, Passion of the Slavic Soul, is sponsored by PlainsCapital Bank.  For tickets for Passion of the Slavic Soul, please call (806) 762-1688, purchase online at http://www.lubbocksymphony.org/, or visit the LSO office at our new location at 601 Avenue K.

Our first Masterworks concert for the 2007-2008 season, Passion of the Slavic Soul, begins in Poland with Karlowicz's lush and romantic Lithuanian Rhapsody. While capturing the essence of 1900s Poland, this piece, written in 1906 uses progressive harmony and orchestration. This is the premier of a new edition of the Karlowicz, edited by Tomasz Golka. Your journey continues with our featured artist, Adam Golka playing the virtuosic Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2. Rachmaninoff is one of the best-known composers and pianists of his day and composed some of the most challenging piano pieces ever written. Your voyage concludes with the exotic blending of Russian and French music in Ravel's 1929 orchestration of Mussorgsky's 1874 piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition.

Tomasz Golka has appeared in performances of over 100 major works with such orchestras as the Seattle, Fort Worth, Louisville, Spoleto USA, Charleston, Lansing, and Florida West Coast symphony orchestras. He has also appeared with Buffalo Philharmonic, where he replaced the ailing scheduled conductor on just a few hours notice and led the orchestra in an enthusiastically received performance. As a conducting fellow at the 2006 Tanglewood Music Festival, he worked with James Levine, shared the podium with Bernard Haitink, and conducted a historic performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale with legendary composers Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and John Harbison as narrators. He has toured Mexico several times, appearing with virtually all of the country's top orchestras, including those of UNAM, Xalapa, Queretaro, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, and Yucatan. An avid supporter of living composers, Golka has several world premieres under his belt, including Mikołaj Górecki's Sinfonietta, Fabián Panisello's Cuadernos para Orquesta, and Eleanor Trawick's Triple Play.

Golka is currently in his first year as Music Director of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. Past positions held by Golka include Music Director of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra and Opera and the Bakersfield Youth Symphony (2003-04), Founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music at All Saints (2000-02), and the Bloomington Chamber Orchestra (1998-99), and, as a violinist, Concertmaster of Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra (1999-2000). Golka studied conducting with David Effron at Indiana University and Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory. He also holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in violin from Rice University, where he was a violin student of Kenneth Goldsmith and Sergiu Luca. He was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in 2002 and has conducted in Master Classes for such distinguished conductors as Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman.

Adam Golka, pianist and winner of the 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Award, is only 20 years old. With nearly 150 performances under his belt, he has performed with such exceptional orchestras as the Houston, Dallas, Milwaukee, San Diego, and Fort Worth Symphonies, as well as the Shanghai Philharmonic, Orchestre Poitou-Charentes, Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco (Guadalajara), and Sinfonia Varsovia. Golka's solo performances have taken him to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Nakanoshima Hall in Osaka, Merkin Hall in New York, the Ravinia Rising Stars Series, the Gilmore Rising Stars Series, Santa Fe Pro Musica, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, Hobby Center in Houston, Barge Music in Brooklyn, and the Music@Menlo, Newport and Duszniki-Chopin music festivals. Throughout 2006, Adam gave his first performance of Beethoven's complete 32 piano sonatas cycle in Fort Worth in nine concerts, which were also viewed by hundreds via live internet webcasts. 

Equally at home as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Golka's vast repertoire encompasses all corners of the piano literature, from Bach to Nicolai Kapustin, with a particular interest in forgotten masterworks, especially those by Nicolai Medtner. He enjoys talking to the audience in his concerts because he believes that communicating with the public can enhance the listening and overall experience of concerts.

A first generation American, Golka owes his unique background to his parents, Polish musicians who fled Communist-controlled Poland in the 1980's in search of a better life. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Golka moved to Fort Worth when he was 15 to study in the Artist Diploma Program at Texas Christian University, and one year later was awarded the first prize and audience prize at the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition. In spring 2005, he completed his studies at TCU under the guidance of renowned pianist Josè Feghali. His other main teachers were Dariusz Pawlas and his mother, Anna Golka. He currently continues to take lessons with Mr. Feghali, whom Adam considers his most important mentor, and is constantly furthering his musical education by taking lessons with other favorite pianists of his.

Adam recently completed his participation in Ravinia's Steans Institute for Young Artists (2007), where he studied solo and chamber music with Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, John O'Connor, Menahem Pressler, and Arie Vardi, among others.

Global Journeys will explore our next destinations, Viva Italia on October 26 & 27, Travel the Orient Express on January 18 &19,  The Many Faces of the Americas on March 7 & 8, and Bohemians and Their Rhapsodies on May 2 & 3. These concerts all take place at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays at the Civic Center Theatre located at Mac Davis Lane and Avenue O.

Two bonus concerts are slated for the 2007-2008 season, Holiday in the Cathedral on Saturday, December 8 and Jazz in the City on Saturday, April 12, both at 8 pm at the Civic Center Theatre.

Ticket prices for Passion of the Slavic Soul are $45, $35 and $20.  For more information about upcoming concerts, our new conductor, or to buy tickets, please call (806) 762-1688, visit http://www.lubbocksymphony.org/, or stop by our new office at 601 Avenue K in Lubbock.

Season subscriptions are still available and prices are $85, $150 and $190 for adults. Student pricing is also available. For more information or to buy tickets, call (806) 762-1688 or stop by the LSO offices at 601 Avenue K in Lubbock.

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