Featuring the two cello ensembles conducted by Cara and Emilio Colón, and the Youth Orchestras of Fresno with the Concerto Competition winners performing works by Popper, Brinton Averil Smith performing Korngold’s Cello Concerto and Emilio Colón’s Poema: La Garza en el Daule conducted by Thomas Loewneheim.

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This year will feature Daniel Akiva, one of Israel’s most notable composers and winner of Israel’s Prime Minister Award for composers.  The Fresno State Symphony Orchestra will give Dr. Akiva’s “Requests for Cello and Orchestra” its world premiere during the festival.  The work is a prayer based on liturgical songs in the style of ancient Sephardic Jews, and it expresses the longing for worldwide peace.  The piece uses the Makamat Eastern sound systems. There is also the use of many ornaments resulting from the frills in the prayers, quarter tones and polyrhythmic systems. Dr. Akiva will also give an improvisation workshop during the festival.  Our second distinguished guest is Brinton Averil Smith, principal cellist of the Houston Symphony since 2005, and cello professor at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the Aspen Music Festival.  Critics have hailed Dr. Smith as a “virtuoso cellist with few equals,” describing him as “a proponent of old-school string playing such as that of Piatigorsky and Heifetz.” Other faculty guest artists will include Thomas Landschoot, Jonathan Ruck, Brian Schuldt and Andrew Smith, representing many of the top music programs in the United States.