World-renowned pianist: Cristiana Pegoraro
Community Concert group ends one season, prepares for another
By Shari Kaplan
Even as its current season draws to a close this spring, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Community Concert Association is already planning for its next season, which doesn't begin until the fall.
Closing out the nonprofit organization's 53rd season is an April 22 performance by pianist Cristiana Pegoraro. She showed her musical prowess at an early age and graduated with highest honors from the Conservatory of Terni in Italy at the age of 16. She then left her native Italy to continue her studies at the Mozarteum in Salsburg and the Hoschule der Kunste in Berlin. She later studied with Nina Svetlanova at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.
Her repertoire includes works by Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Ravel and Scarlatti. She also enjoys the melodic lines and technically demanding phrasing of 20th-century Cuban composer Ernesto Leucona. Pegoraro has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras and as a soloist in major concert halls throughout the world.
Pegoraro's concert takes place at 2:30 p.m. in Los Gatos High School's Prentiss Brown Auditorium, 20 High School Court. Tickets are $15 per person.
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Community Concert Association is also selling subscriptions to its 54th season of four performances from October 2001 through April 2002. All concerts take place at Prentiss Brown Auditorium.
The first concert, on Oct. 14, features the Thuringer Salonquintet. The chamber music ensemble from German plays entertaining music in the European tradition, as well as American jazz and other tunes.
The Nov. 18 performance offers a double bill: operatic soprano Maria Spacagna and operatic composer Henry Mollicone. The childhood friends perform together in "Five Love Songs," which Mollicone wrote especially for Spacagna's expressive voice.
Next up is flutist Debra Reuter-Pivetta on Feb. 10, the first-ever recipient of the Community Concerts Performance Prize and also the winner of the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Songs from her CD, Passion and Romance, are often played on public radio stations. Joining her in concert is her husband/accompanist.
Finally, the San Jose Choral Project comes to town on April 21, with 35 multitalented singers, led by artistic director and founder Daniel Hughes, who has earned several awards for his conducting, as well as his talents in composing and as a pianist. The San Jose Choral Project was the showcase choir for the 2000 National Association of Composers Competition.
Season tickets are $50 for adults, $45 for senior citizens, $10 for students (through high school age) and $110 for the family plan, which admits two adults and any number of students. Members who renew by April 22, will receive a bonus ticket for one concert in the upcoming season. New members who subscribe to the upcoming season will be admitted free to Pegoraro's performance. Anyone who gets six new members to enroll in the LGSCCA will receive one free season ticket.
For more information, call Ray Strong at 408.377.1106, or Lea Frey at 408.356.5698.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
