High hopes were riding on San Diego Chamber Orchestra’s Oct. 9 concert: It began the apparently egalitarian regime of recently appointed artistic director Jung-Ho Pak. The delightful reality is that the beloved maestro, former artistic director of the San Diego Symphony, has a “platform” in San Diego once again.
Rumors were rife from Pak’s initial meeting with the musicians several months ago. He challenged them on many accounts. After their first rehearsal, one began to hear from the players that Pak “is absolutely the right man for the job.” They seem cohesive and happy, indeed, smiling at one another, and when not playing themselves, they are actively involved in others’ playing.
Little wonder, for Pak is an exciting, involved conductor. The small orchestra allows one to hear every nuance in the program, which was composed of “firsts.”
Most shiny and entertaining of all the firsts was the world premiere of “Milestones “” For Jung-Ho,” an olio of tributes from five composers who riffed on the maestro’s attributes and also on the letters of his name. The piece comprises Michael Albaugh’s “The Crusader,” Larry Groupe’s “The Idea Man,” Paul Salerni’s “Evening Scene,” Bruce Donnelly’s “The Explorer” and Anthony DeRitis’ “On the Move.”
All are post-modern, playful melodists who write vividly and zestfully, certainly providing Pak an entr\u00e9e to introduce his audiences to more such works.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestra Suite No. 1 provided the sections to show off their impressive playing. Of particular excellence was the interplay between oboists Susan Barrett and Scott Paulson and bassoonist Ryan Simmons.
The program closed with a lovely reading of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. The audience, apparently overjoyed with the sound, accorded the work, the maestro and the reinvigorated players a standing ovation.
Pak and San Diego Chamber Orchestra appear to be a winning combination. Audiences have two nearby choices of location when choosing a concert by Pak and San Diego Chamber Orchestra: downtown and La Jolla. Programs are also played at Del Mar Country Club in Rancho Santa Fe. The next downtown program, “A Party for Wolfgang,” is scheduled at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 10 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, 2778 6th Ave. at Nutmeg. For additional information, visit www.sdco.org, or phone (858) 350-0290.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
High hopes were riding on San Diego Chamber Orchestra’s Oct. 9 concert: It began the apparently egalitarian regime of recently appointed artistic director Jung-Ho Pak. The delightful reality is that the beloved maestro, former artistic director of the San Diego Symphony, has a “platform” in San Diego once again.Rumors were rife from Pak’s initial meeting […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Chamber orchestra welcomes Jung-Ho Pak","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}