PASSION, VISION AND VIRTUOSITY: Dr Sylvia Lee Mann conducts the Coachella Valley Symphony

March 14, 2011 - PRLog -- The Coachella Valley Symphony, under the musical direction of Dr. Sylvia Lee Mann, guest conductor, presents a concert full of passion, vision and virtuosity.

The highlight of the evening will be cellist Evan Drachman, the grandson of the famed Russian cellist, Gregor Piatagorsky. Evan will perform the Dvorak Cello Concerto. The program also includes the Overture to Don Giovanni, by Mozart and Beethoven's famed Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral, and Adrienne Albert's "Courage"
Composer Adrienne Albert will be in attendance as our special guest at this concert She is an award- winning, contemporary American composer of classical and concert music for chamber ensembles, choral ensembles and orchestra.
More info: http://www.coachellavalleysymphony.com/cvsymph-concerts.html

About Sylvia Lee Mann, Conductor
Dr. Mann is an award-winning composer, conductor and virtuoso performer, appearing with many orchestras in the Southern California area. In addition to her position as Music Director and Conductor of The West Covina Symphony Orchestra, she serves on the music faculty at California State University Dominguez Hills, is the Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City, CA and assistant conductor of the Bellflower Symphony Orchestra. She is a performer with The Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, The Rio Hondo, La Mirada, Peninsula and Southeast Symphony Orchestras, and is principal violist of the Culver City and Marina del Rey Symphony Orchestras. Dr. Mann is in high demand as a guest conductor in the Southern California area. Most recently she appeared as a guest conductor for the Culver City Symphony’s “Spring Break” concert, and as a featured composer for their “American Beat” concert this past January.  This season she is also honored to appear as a featured guest conductor of the Coachella Valley Symphony.
Her musical studies began at age 4. She completed her undergraduate studies at Chapman College, and did her graduate studies at the University of Southern California & London University.She studied viola and violin with such notable teachers as Dr. Thomas G. Hall, Louis Debovsky, John Coppin, Noumi Fischer, Francis Tersi, David Stockhammer and Milton Thomas. As a composer, her mentors include William Kraft, Gunther Schuller and Samuel Adler. Her conducting studies included such notable pedagogues as Maestro John Koshak, who studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Dr. James Vail of USC, Daniel Lewis, Hans Beer and Dr. Rodney Eichenberger.
In Louisiana Dr. Mann served as the principal violist of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, The Baroque Artists of Shreveport and violist of the Premier String Quartet. She was Music Director of the Ark-La-Tex Youth Symphony Orchestra, enjoyed performing with the popular all-woman rock band, “Lip Service” and was the recipient of the Shreveport LA Regional Arts Council's prestigious Music Fellowship Award. She has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras here and abroad. Dr. Mann is currently composing, conducting and recording music for upcoming feature films and orchestral commissions. More information about her original compositions can be found on her website, www.SylviaLeeMann.com.


About Evan Drachman, Cellist

Cellist Evan Drachman has combined artistic talent with great personal warmth and compassion to create a distinctive musical career. Mr. Drachman is an artist much sought-after for his solo and chamber music performances. Additionally, as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Piatigorsky Foundation Drachman is one of the most respected authorities on the presentation of live classical music for diverse audiences throughout the United States. The Foundation was founded in 1990 in honor of Drachman’s grandfather, the legendary Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Its mission is to make live classical music a part of the fabric of everyday life for diverse audience throughout America.
Mr. Drachman has appeared regularly as soloist with orchestras, in recitals and chamber music performances across the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia. He has performed with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich, as well as the Chinese-American Symphony and the Odessa Philharmonic. Drachman has spent his summers performing at music festivals including Aspen, Yale at Norfolk, the Park City International Music Festival, the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, Prussia Cove in Aldeburgh, England, the Cennina Music Festival in Italy, and the Sitka Summer Music Festival in Alaska. Following the success of his first CD with pianist Richard Dowling, A Frog He Went a Courting, Drachman has released two others entitled Infinity and Romance and Revelation.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Evan Drachman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has also studied at the Peabody Conservatory and the New England Conservatory. His principal teachers were Stephen Kates, Laurence Lesser, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, and Orlando Cole. Currently, Mr. Drachman lives in Maryland with his wife Joan and their two sons, Eli and Oliver.


About Adrienne Albert, composer

Adrienne Albert, Composer
Long a collaborator with composers Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass and Gunther Schuller, award-winning composer Adrienne Albert began composing her own music in the 1990s.  
Her concert works have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Thailand, South Africa, and China.  Albert is the recipient of a 2006 National Endowment for the Arts grant in conjunction with the American Composers Forum for the Continental Harmony Project. 2009 brought commissions from The Newstead Trio, PA, (“Musescapes: Piano Trio #2), and “Courage for Winds” for the Inland Empire Youth Wind Ensemble consortium.  “An Alaskan Symphony” for choir and orchestra was premiered in Alaska in 2007.  
Other recent commissions include chamber works for Pacific Serenades (2007), “Wind Tides” for trombonist Andrew Malloy (2008), Evensong Service for choir and organ for St. Bedes Episcopal Church (2007), and  “Americana Quartet” for Chamber Music Palisades in Los Angeles, CA, (2008).  Albert’s woodwind quintet, “Animalogy” won the Aeros Competition in 2007 and was performed in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in 2008.  Other past awards and grants include several Meet the Composer grants, Composer Assistance Program grants, Mu Phi Epsilon grant, the prestigious ACME Award, and ten consecutive ASCAP Awards.  
Albert is the co- President of the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon Music Fraternity, a member of ACF-LA, SAG, AFTRA, The American Music Center, IAWM, Chamber Music America, The Dominant Club, NACUSA and ASCAP   Her music has been recorded for Centaur, ABC Classics and Little Piper Records and is published by Kenter Canyon Music (ASCAP).
More information about Adrienne and her music, audio clips, and scores can be found on her web site: www.adriennealbert.com or by emailing adrienne@adriennealbert.com.

The concert begins at 7pm, Tuesday March 15, 2011 at Del Webb's Sun City Sierra Ballroom in Palm Desert, CA.

$18, $25, $35
Call 760-360-2222 for ticket information

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The West Covina Symphony is a community orchestra offering concerts, innovative programming, and educational outreach to enrich our community and opportunities for musicians in Southern California.
Visit our website now to support the symphony.

The Coachella Valley Symphony welcomes Dr. Sylvia Lee Mann to the podium for this special event.
It is the mission of Coachella Valley Symphony to perpetuate live symphonic music, and to enhance the cultural texture of our desert community. We remain dedicated to musical excellence by maintaining public performance venues for both local accomplished musicians with Coachella Valley Symphony, and also young emerging musicians with the Buddy Rogers Youth Symphony.