Three Candidates Presented to Succeed Longtime Redlands Symphony Director Jon Robertson

On Saturday, Oct. 17, the Redlands Symphony will launch their 2015-2016 season during which audiences and musicians will have the opportunity to meet the three candidates competing to succeed Jon Robertson as music director and conductor of the orchestra when he retires after 33 years of service to the orchestra and community. “I am pleased to welcome three extremely talented gentlemen to the podium this season as we work to select a new music director and conductor for the Redlands Symphony,” said Robertson. “This season offers an exciting selection of concerts full of new and challenging music that gives us a hint of what we might expect in the future. I believe it will be one of our best seasons ever. “Although it is bittersweet for me to close this chapter of my life, I am grateful to know that I am leaving this beloved orchestra in passionate and capable hands, and I am excited to watch it grow and flourish under new leadership.” Robertson and the Redlands Symphony will open the season on October 17 with a program that includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring cellist Doniyor Zuparov. The season continues on Saturday, Nov. 14, when Ransom Wilson takes the podium to lead an energetic concert of music from opera and ballet featuring music from Leonard Bernstein’s Fancy Free and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Wilson, the first of three conductor candidates, has an international reputation both as a flutist and a conductor, with countless performances and over a dozen recordings, including two Grammy Award nominations. Conductor Benjamin Wallfisch will lead the orchestra into 2016 with performances of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 on January 23. Wallfisch, the second candidate to succeed Robertson, is well-known as a conductor throughout Europe and the United States. He has also scored dozens of films and television shows, earning an Emmy Award for his work. Maestro Robertson returns on Saturday, Feb. 13, to join the orchestra in accompanying the winner of the University of Redlands Concerto Competition. After the exciting debut of this young soloist, the orchestra will perform Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The third conductor candidate, Gordon Hunt, will join the orchestra on Saturday, March 12, 2016. A UNESCO Artist for Peace, Hunt has conducted orchestras throughout the world and is principal oboist of the Philharmonia and London Chamber Orchestras. Maestro Hunt will lead the Redlands Symphony in a program featuring Mozart’s Symphony No. 33 and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. As a special highlight of Maestro Robertson’s final season, he will appear with internationally-acclaimed soprano Angel Blue in a recital on Sunday, April 10, 2016, at 2 p.m. The audience for this intimate event will be limited to 300 people, and subscribers will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets. Any remaining tickets will be made available to the public beginning Sept. 1. Robertson will take the podium for the last time as music director and conductor on Saturday, April 16, 2016. In his farewell concert with the Redlands Symphony, he will lead the orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, after which Angel Blue will join him to present a stirring performance of Samuel Barber’s nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915.