Tacoma Symphony Orchestra’s Sarah Ioannides Conducts Puget Sound's Symphony Orchestra

TACOMA, Wash. – Sarah Ioannides, the new music director at Tacoma Symphony Orchestra (TSO), will raise her baton to lead the University of Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra at a free April 24 concert.

Ioannides will be a guest conductor at the place where the TSO had its start: the University of Puget Sound campus, where the orchestra grew under the leadership of Edward Seferian, professor of music and “Father of the TSO.” This is believed to be the first time a TSO music director has returned to the campus to conduct its own student orchestra.

Ioannides will lead the university’s Symphony Orchestra in a 7:30 p.m. performance on Friday, April 24, in Schneebeck Concert Hall on campus. The program will span three centuries of music, including Leonard Bernstein, American contemporary composer Russell Peck, and Russia’s Dmitri Shostakovich. There is no charge, tickets are not required, and everyone is welcome. The doors open at 7 p.m. Directions and a map of campus are below.

It was 1959 when Puget Sound’s legendary professor of violin, Edward Seferian, first took charge of an amateur ensemble of Tacoma citizens and (as the university was then known) College of Puget Sound students. The campus-based troupe was called the CPS-Tacoma Symphony Orchestra. By the time Seferian stepped down as the orchestra’s music director in 1994, he had transformed it into one of the finest professional symphonies in the Northwest and a centerpiece of Tacoma’s cultural life. Meanwhile, Puget Sound developed its own student orchestra and grew its music program into today’s highly regarded School of Music.

 “I am delighted to be conducting the University of Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra this spring,” said Ioannides. “The Tacoma area is fortunate to have such a fine institution as Puget Sound, with students and faculty who hold to a very high level of quality and excellence.

“The program we selected is one that I would choose for a professional orchestra—a program that will showcase the students’ talents, as well as present a few exciting challenges along the way—and be thrilling for the audience, too!”

The Australian-born conductor, who grew up in the United Kingdom and came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship, is enthusiastic about growing ties with the Tacoma community. School of Music Director Keith Ward said Ioannides’ appointment with the TSO last July was serendipitously timed to allow this special performance, as Puget Sound is currently in the process of selecting a new orchestra director.

“We know Sarah’s deep connection to and profound belief in music education, and we celebrate the opportunity to bring her back to the roots of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra during her first year,” he said. The evening program will include:

Overture to Candide, by Leonard Bernstein
The Upward Stream, by Russell Peck
Symphony No. 5, by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Upward Stream, a critically praised work originally written for renowned classical saxophonist James Houlik and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, will feature Puget Sound’s own excellent tenor saxophonist Brady McCowan ’15, a winner in the School of Music’s 2014–15 Concerto/Aria Competition.

Bernstein’s Overture to Candide is a highly popular piece incorporating tunes from several of the songs that helped make the 1956 operetta’s music score a success. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 is a seminal work, created under Joseph Stalin's tyranny, that some say mixes the heroic and lyrical tones approved by the Russian regime with a subtle undercurrent of critical despair.

This collaboration between the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and Puget Sound is one of many that have occurred over the years. The university regularly invites TSO members as guest artists to direct masterclasses. Simultaneously, the TSO has historically drawn on Puget Sound staff, faculty, and students for its members and guest artists. Since 2013 the TSO has partnered with the university’s Community Music Department and Ted Brown Music to perform the Mini Maestros series of public children’s concerts. In 2013 Puget Sound sponsored a TSO concert as part of the school’s 125th-anniversary celebrations.

Sarah Ioannides, named music director of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra in 2014, has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic, New World Symphony, and London Symphony orchestras, among many others. Described by The New York Times as a conductor with “unquestionable strength and authority,” she has won praise from audiences and critics internationally. Previous roles have included music director with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and assistant conductor and production coordinator for Tan Dun, the legendary Chinese composer known for innovative works such as the score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She received master’s degrees from Oxford University and The Juilliard School.

University of Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra is made up of talented students from around the country, some of whom are music majors enrolled in the college’s School of Music. Students audition to join the Symphony Orchestra, which performs several concerts each year. Many of its members also play in chamber groups or ensembles that perform for college opera, musical, and theater productions.

Tacoma Symphony Orchestra has been a vital part of Tacoma’s cultural landscape for 65 years and has operated as a professional orchestra for the past 16. Each year the 80-plus orchestra members bring music into the lives of nearly 20,000 citizens throughout the region. In addition to classical concerts, special pop concerts, classical choral programs, and guest appearances to back celebrity artists, the orchestra has a growing menu of youth education and community engagement activities.

For directions and a map of the campus:pugetsound.edu/directions
For accessibility information, please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Press photos of Sarah Ioannides can be downloaded frompugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: Top right: Sarah Ioannides; Above left: Edward Seferian; Above right: Leonard Bernstein, 1955, Library of Congress photo.

Tweet this: See Sarah Ioannides @tacomasymphony conduct @univpugetsound student Symphony Orchestra. What a night! Fri. April 24. Free. http://bit.ly/1Cj8fLv

Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/univpugetsound