This history of Prometheus Symphony Orchestra’s 50 years of music making comes to a close with the story of our latest, but certainly not our last, decade.
Eric Hansen — Sixth Music Director, 1997 to Present
As Music Director, Eric Hansen does much more than conduct the orchestra. He selects each season’s repertoire, recruits soloists and new players and works with the concertmaster. For several years that was the incomparable Lenore Gilbert, and since 2013, Alexx Hinkle. Eric judges our concerto competition, and coaches the young winners as they adapt to performing with an orchestra. Eric works closely with the Board of Directors on the mission and mechanics of running the orchestra, including maintaining our relationship with our host, Merritt College.
The Greatest Hits
Eric keeps the Orchestra vibrant and ever-growing with challenges presented by the most beloved and most demanding symphonic works from the 18th through the 20th Centuries. In addition to familiar works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and the Three B’s (Bach, Beethoven and Brahms), we performed all the “greats” including Bartok, Berlioz, Bernstein, Bruckner, Copland, Dvořák, Elgar, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Nielsen, Prokofiev, Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. We culminated the last season of the decade with Beethoven’s masterpiece, Symphony No. 9.
Featuring Our Own
One was the 2006 world premiere of Summer Breezes, written by our own Tom Baker, composer, pianist and a long-time member of our viola section. That same season, two of our concertmasters, Ann Ryu and Jane Herr, joined in Vivaldi’s dazzling Concerto for Four Violins in B minor. In 2010, Adrienne Chambers played Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1. In 2011, our brass and woodwinds presented Richard Strauss’s Suite for 13 Wind Instruments.
Our Audience
One of Eric’s great talents is choosing music that pleases our listeners as well as the musicians. In a volunteer orchestra, the members’ only pay is the “standing O” that our loyal audience often gives us. In this decade, we have reached out to the many senior residences in the East Bay, and are gratified by those that bring seniors to enjoy concerts, intentionally held on Sunday afternoons to give senior citizens and families with children a chance to enjoy classical music.
40th Season Celebration
Our Gala Anniversary Concert in 2005 featured noted Bay Area violinist Robin Hansen, Concertmaster of the Midsummer Mozart Orchestra (and sister to Eric Hansen) and Anna Kruger, violist with the S.F. Ballet Orchestra, in a scintillating performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola. The orchestra itself was a star in a series of challenging performances, including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique.
Stars of Tomorrow
Our Khuner Young Artist Concerto Competition continues to thrive. The Orchestra’s 50th Season marks the Competition’s 26th year. A star among stars during this decade was the very young violinist, Stephen Waarts, who was only 12 when he auditioned and 13 when he performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in 2010. A student at the Curtis Institute, he came back in 2011 playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and again in 2013 for Berg’s concerto “To the Memory of an Angel.”
Cellist Tessa Seymour was also 12 when she won in 2005, entered Curtis Institute at age 16, and has performed at Carnegie Hall and on “From the Top” on NPR. See the Khuner Concerto Competition page for every winner.
50th Season Celebration
On November 16, 2014, we pulled out the stops for a Gala Concert and Reception to open the season-long celebration. We played Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, topped by a stunning performance by cellist Oliver Herbert, our 2013 Khuner Concerto Competition winner, of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. The standing room only audience of close to 400 broke our record.
50th Season finale: The Celebration continued for the entire 50th Anniversary Season of 2014–2015, the climax being the May 17, 2015, performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 “The Choral” with a chorus and nationally recognized vocal soloists: Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai, soprano; Jennifer Boesing, mezzo-soprano; Mark Narins, tenor; and Eugene Brancoveanu, baritone. The Season ended with a champagne reception — the largest audience ever to attend a Prometheus concert.