It’s a very different sort of Ladies Night.
The Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra, headed by music director and conductor Mario Alejandro Torres, will present a unique concert filled with great and powerful works written and conceived exclusively by women composers as part of a special two-night concert event: “Women of Power!”
The featured creative ladies went to great lengths to ensure that they had the same rights to work and to be acknowledged in the same way as their male counterparts, according to orchestra officials.
Works by Elfrida Andrée, Amy Beach, and Louise Farrenc will give audiences a glimpse of the extraordinary but often overlooked contributions of women to orchestral music.
Additionally, the program will include a featured soloist: renowned pianist Yuka Sasaki.
Sasaki has garnered glowing concert reviews and top prizes at competitions in both the U.S. and abroad. Tessinar Zeitung from Switzerland describes her as “superbly talented” and said “[she] should be mentioned above all.”
She began playing piano at age 5 in Johannesburg, South Africa before moving back to her native Japan, and has concertized internationally including recitals at the Teatro Civico and Domenico Sarro in Italy, the Piccolo Mondo International Music Festival in Switzerland, as well as in Japan at the Yokohama Kenmin Hall, OJI Hall and Tokyo’s prestigious Suntory Hall, where she received praise as possessing a “virtuosic technique, fantastic musical temperament with a beautiful sound.”
Concerto appearances include performances with the Okazaki Symphony in Japan, Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Sammamish Symphony, University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Thalia Symphony, and the Federal Way Symphony.
Currently on the faculty of the music department of Seattle Central College, Sasaki also has served as adjudicator for the Washington Music Educators Association and the Northwest Chopin Festival.
She also maintains a private studio from which her students have won numerous awards and been accepted to some of the world’s foremost music schools and conservatories.
“Women of Power!” is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9 at Bainbridge Performing Arts.
Torres will offer a pre-concert chat on Sunday at 2:15 p.m.
Tickets, $21 for adults, and $18 for seniors, students, military, and teachers, may be purchased online at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org, by phone at 206-842-8569 or in person at BPA (200 Madison Ave. North).
Each youth receives free admission when accompanied by a paying adult thanks to the BSO’s “Youth in Music Initiative,” funded by Wicklund Dental.
Box office hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and one hour prior to each performance.
Torres is a conductor, teacher, and performer native to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Currently based in Seattle, Torres made his Benaroya Hall conducting debut in collaboration with Ludovic Morlot and David Alexander Rahbee in an exciting concert with the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra.
For the past two years, he has served in a conducting fellowship with the Seattle Symphony, assisting Morlot in collaboration with artists such as Hilary Hahn and John Luther Adams.
The former music director of Poulsbo Community Orchestra, outside of the United States he has conducted performances with the Eddy Snijders Orchestra in Paramaribo, Suriname, and in his hometown with the professional Chamber Orchestra of San Pedro Sula, and Victoriano Lopez School of Music Choir.
