Gloria Liou, violinist and winner of the Pomona College Orchestra 2015 Concerto Competition, will be featured this month with the orchestra. The concerts will be held in Bridges Hall of Music (150 E. Fourth St., Claremont) at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26 and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 28. Both concerts are free and open to the public.
Pomona College Orchestra Music Director Eric Lindholm says of Liou, “Gloria has really taken ownership of this piece. She plays it with great personal sensitivity and a remarkable quality of sound.” Liou, a second-year student, hails from Saratoga, Calif. Prior to arriving at Pomona College she served as concertmaster of the California All-State Orchestra and the Saratoga High Orchestra. She has received various awards including first place at the Nova Vista Symphony Young Artist Competition, the CMTANC International Youth Music Competition, and at the American Fine Arts Festival International Competition from which she was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. Liou has soloed with the Nova Vista Symphony, performed at the Junior Bach Festival, and attended the Tanglewood Music Festival. A computer science, linguistics and cognitive science double major, she is currently studying violin at Pomona College with Sarah Thornblade.
The Pomona College Orchestra has a long tradition as an important creative and cultural outlet for the students, faculty, and staff of The Claremont Colleges. Its roster for these concerts includes representatives from four of the five undergraduate colleges and from the greater community. While the members of the orchestra reflect the great diversity that is characteristic of the College, they demonstrate unity in their commitment to the music they rehearse and perform.
Last May, the orchestra undertook a tour to the Monterey Peninsula, performing a program of Fauré, Mendelssohn, and Brahms at Sherwood Hall in Salinas and Sunset Center in Carmel. Other recent repertoire includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 4; the Western U.S. premiere of Joan Tower’s new concerto for bassoon and string orchestra, Red Maple (with Carolyn Beck as soloist); works by Rouse and Vaughan Williams. This spring the orchestra, in collaboration with the Pomona College Choir (Prof. Donna M. Di Grazia, director), will perform Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.
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PROGRAM:
Beethoven:............................ Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72a
Chausson:.............................. Poème, Op. 25
Gloria Liou, violin
Prokofiev:.............................. Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131