From the Director of Ticket Sales:
Purchasing tickets from VoxAmaDeus is easy and convenient. We have brought back two popular flexible Season Pass opportunities this season (click here to purchase). You can order individual tickets to all of our non-Kimmel Center concerts online from our web site, call our office at 610-688-2800 and speak to a real person(!) or fill out an order form from our Season 28 brochure and mail it with a check or credit card information [your credit card information is secure and is not stored on our server or on that of our card processor]. Tickets to our Kimmel Center concerts must be purchased from Ticket Philadelphia online, via telephone at 215-893-1999 or in person at the Kimmel Center Box Office. Click here for complete details of Season 28. We look forward to seeing you at our concerts! ~ Paul Marchesano
From Maestro Radu:
Similarly to my idol Johann Sebastian Bach (and also my engineer father), I have always been fascinated by numbers and their significance in my life and the world at large. My two favorite numbers have always been 3 and 7. Three represents the Holy Trinity (three Persons in one God), and seven was acquired later in life after I became a nut-case fan of James Bond ("Double O…").
When I was growing up in Communist Romania, religion and God were highly unpopular with, disapproved of, and disallowed by the regime. But in the majority of cases this edict had the opposite effect, making the "subjects" of the Eastern European communist countries even more religious and God-loving than they might otherwise have been. On the other hand, the films from the James Bond series somehow were not deemed to be too threatening to the regime. So, they were allowed to be shown on Romanian movie screens (whereas, with the exception of John Wayne Westerns, movies from the United States were no-nos).
After this hopefully interesting historical-footnote introduction, and getting back to numbers and their symbolism, VoxAmaDeus' Season 28 will soon make its splashy debut on Sunday, September 14 at 6:00 p.m. in Daylesford Abbey. This will be a super-exciting Camerata Ama Deus concert featuring yours truly playing and conducting from the Bösendorfer 225 grand piano. It will also feature two of my best friends and most valuable players: my beloved concertmaster, Thomas DiSarlo, in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (a first in our programming); and Edward Schultz on his "magic flute" in the unique Orchestral Suite No. 2, a tour de force composed by the master of musical numerology, Johann Sebastian Bach. What is more, the two numbers that comprise 28 add up to make a "Perfect 10," and that’s exactly what, in my NOT-so-humble opinion, this season is and will be!
All of my professional life (which started with my debut at age six on the stage of the Bucharest Philharmonic as a piano prodigy) I have striven to deliver "Perfect 10" performances, whether as a concert pianist, organist or conductor. It has not always been easy to achieve the magic number 10. Throughout my career, I have faced down many challenges—political, geographical and financial—even conducting Messiah while unknowingly being stricken with a full-blown case of adult-onset chicken pox!
In my capacity as VoxAmaDeus' artistic director, one of the most formidable annual challenges I face is balancing the wants with the needs and the affordables—both the financial and the artistic—to be able to craft a "Perfect 10" season, like the one that is about to take off.
Back in Communist Romania, where just about everything was owned and operated by the government, the financial aspect of any performance was always taken care of by the "State Budget." The only problem there was that I didn’t have the freedom to perform what I wished to without prior consent from the government censorship office.
By contrast, here in Philadelphia I have the freedom to perform anything I wish—providing I can afford it financially. Interesting, isn’t it!? I suppose the old saying, "You can't have your cake and eat it too," applies on both sides of the Atlantic!
In my endeavors I was, and continue to be, extremely fortunate to have the support of a few exceptionally generous private and corporate "super angels." They allow me to craft, year after year, the kind of performance season that the 28th is. Needless to say, my extreme gratitude goes out to them.
Of course, even with such generous financial support I could not deliver superior-grade performances without my beloved "foot soldier" musicians. As some of you know, VoxAmaDeus is very unique in several ways among regional musical organizations. In my opinion, a highly distinctive and interesting feature is that VoxAmaDeus presents, on the same stage, top-level orchestral musicians drawn from several major cities on the east coast, including artists who perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the Harrisburg Symphony, the Reading Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony and the Washington National Symphony!
Vox's top-notch chorus is made up of singers who, although presently residing in the Philadelphia area, come from all over this great country. In addition to the chorus and orchestra, I am proud to invite, on a yearly basis, first-flight soloist artists, both American as well as European.
I will wrap up this personal narration with a couple of highlights from Season 28:
The internationally acclaimed British pianist Maestro Peter Donohoe is returning this season for two stellar performances on the stage of the Kimmel Center. The first concert, on Friday, January 16, 2015, is entitled Awesome Americans ~ Gershwin ● Copland ● Williams. Along with audience favorites for solo piano by George Gershwin, this program will also include a rendition of Aaron Copland's rarely performed, jazz-inspired Piano Concerto of 1926. Then on Friday, May 15, 2015, Maestro Donohoe will assay piano masterworks by "The 3 B's ~ Bach ● Beethoven ● Brahms," three towering piano concertos presented in one unforgettable concert! To me personally, as well as for VoxAmaDeus, it is a great honor to have Maestro Donohoe perform with us—not only topping our Season 28, but tremendously enhancing the cultural level of the Philadelphia Classical-music concert scene.
As I mentioned earlier, yours truly will (in addition to opening Season 28 with the concert on Sunday, September 14 at 6:00 p.m. in Daylesford Abbey) perform (by popular demand) on Friday, November 21 at 8:00 p.m. an encore of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto ("Empress") on the stage of the Kimmel Center, this time from the gigantic 97-keyed, Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano.
Palm Sunday (March 29, 2015) and Good Friday (April 3, 2015) will each be graced with magnificent renditions of one of Western Civilization's greatest vocal-symphonic works: Bach's High Mass in B Minor. These concerts will be performed by Baroque-instrument orchestra, chorus, and stellar soloists.
And of course it would not be the Christmas holiday season without Handel's Messiah (the 1749 Covent Garden version, performed with Baroque instruments). It will be my privilege to conduct five performances, in five different venues, throughout the Philadelphia region as well as in Princeton, New Jersey. For the past 20 years and more, this annual VoxAmaDeus series has been a "must attend" musical event!
Our sparkling chamber orchestra, Camerata Ama Deus, now in its eighth season, returns with three exciting programs featuring Baroque and Classical gems. And every concert will be interspersed with the traditional and beloved "live notes" by the Maestro.
And last, but definitely not least, the oldest VoxAmaDeus holiday tradition, A Renaissance Noël, returns to enchant you and take you on a musical journey back to old Europe.
Please join me for the "Perfect 10" of Season 28—a journey of musical excitement and beauty which begins in a few short weeks.
Yours truly,
Valentin Radu
