Saturday, May 13, 7:30 pm

Our 43rd classical concert season continues with a concert program originally intended to close out our first season with Maestro Wheatley. As we peer into the future to see a Mysterious Mountain, a towering blue cathedral and a symphonic Rhapsody in Blue with guest artist Cristina Valdés.

Pre-Concert Chat - You're invited to arrive a little early to join Maestro Wheatley and guest artist, Cristina Valdés, for an intimate pre-concert chat. Theater doors open at 6:40 pm for general seating, with the chat beginning at 6:45 pm. When the chat concludes, attendees will leave the theater and re-enter with their ticket to take their reserved seats for the concert.

Jennifer Higdon
blue cathedral

George Gershwin, orch. Jessica Lewis
Rhapsody in Blue

Björk, arr. Ava Conway
Dancer in the Dark

Patrick Hughes
Dancing on the Hill

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5

Alan Hovhaness
Symphony No. 2, Op. 132, “Mysterious Mountain”

ARTIST BIO

Cristina Valdés

Recently hailed by Fanfare Magazine as “excellent” and “clearly sensitive”, pianist Cristina Valdés is known for presenting innovative concerts with repertoire ranging from Bach to Xenakis. She has performed across four continents and in venues such as Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Miller Theatre, Jordan Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Ms. Valdés has appeared both as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals worldwide including New Music in Miami, the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City, Brisbane Arts Festival, the Festival of Contemporary Music in El Salvador, Havana Contemporary Music Festival, and the Singapore Arts Festival.

Cristina has appeared as concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Philharmonic, the Lake Union Civic Orchestra, Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, the Binghamton Philharmonic, NOCCO, Philharmonia Northwest, the Eastman Broad Band, and the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 she performed the piano solo part of Ives’s 4th Symphony with the Seattle Symphony under the direction of Ludovic Morlot, which was later released on CD to critical acclaim. Her most recent recording is of Orlando Garcia’s “From Darkness to Luminosity” with the Málaga Philharmonic on the Toccata Classics label. She can also be heard on the Albany, Newport Classics, and Urtext labels.

Highlights of the 2018-2019 season included a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the world-premiere performance of Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez’s “Short Stories” for piano and string orchestra with the Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the U.S. Premiere of “Under Construction” for solo piano and tape playback by Heiner Goebbels at Benaroya Hall. This season Cristina will be performing Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the UW Symphony, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Skagit Symphony.

Ms. Valdés received a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington, where she teaches piano and is the Director of the UW Modern Music Ensemble.