The Sandpoint faces of the CDA Symphony

CDA Symphony begins new season this weekend

By Lyndsie Kiebert
Reader Staff Writer

The Coeur d’Alene Symphony is starting its 36th season this weekend with the kickoff of this year’s theme: Voyage of Discovery.

The theme stems from the symphony’s search for a new conductor. After weeding through 60 applicants from all over the world, the job is down to five contenders, each of which will conduct a concert during the 2017-2018 season. Each conductor candidate will direct a classical symphony, a soloist concerto and a piece of their own choice.

From left to right: Mika Hood is an instructor at Sandpoint’s Bella Note Music studio, and is principal cellist in CDA Symphony and will be soloist in the Bloch Schelomo for the December concert. Beth Weber, long time private Suzuki instructor in Sandpoint, plays violin in CDA Symphony and is a member of the board of directors. Rachel Gordon, part owner of Bella Note Music studio, has a Master’s in flute performance and is principal flutist in CDA Symphony. Rich Beber retired music instructor is bassoonist in CDA Symphony. Sam Minker instructor at Sandpoint Music Conservatory plays cello in CDA Symphony. Courtesy photo.

The conductor for the first performance of the season, held Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and again on Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, is current Washington State University Music Director Dahn Pham. He will be conducting the Beethoven Fifth Symphony and Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 with award winning soloist Yesong Sophie Lee on a night deemed “Discover Europe.” True to the season’s theme, each concert’s title touches on “discovery” in some way.

These conducting performances will then be judged in order to choose a new permanent conductor for the symphony.

“A selection committee, the symphony itself, audience feedback and the symphony board of directors will determine the final choice,” said member of the CDA Symphony board of directors and violinist Beth Weber. “This will be a really exciting season to participate in as a musician or as a member of the audience.”

A host of Sandpoint talent performs with the CDA Symphony, including Weber, Mika Hood, Rachel Gordon, Rich Beber and Sam Minker.

Tickets to any of the symphony’s upcoming performances can be purchased online at www.cdasymphony.org under the “Get Tickets” tab.

While we have you ...

... if you appreciate that access to the news, opinion, humor, entertainment and cultural reporting in the Sandpoint Reader is freely available in our print newspaper as well as here on our website, we have a favor to ask. The Reader is locally owned and free of the large corporate, big-money influence that affects so much of the media today. We're supported entirely by our valued advertisers and readers. We're committed to continued free access to our paper and our website here with NO PAYWALL - period. But of course, it does cost money to produce the Reader. If you're a reader who appreciates the value of an independent, local news source, we hope you'll consider a voluntary contribution. You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.

You can contribute at either Paypal or Patreon.

Contribute at Patreon Contribute at Paypal

You may also like...

Close [x]

Want to support independent local journalism?

The Sandpoint Reader is our town's local, independent weekly newspaper. "Independent" means that the Reader is locally owned, in a partnership between Publisher Ben Olson and Keokee Co. Publishing, the media company owned by Chris Bessler that also publishes Sandpoint Magazine and Sandpoint Online. Sandpoint Reader LLC is a completely independent business unit; no big newspaper group or corporate conglomerate or billionaire owner dictates our editorial policy. And we want the news, opinion and lifestyle stories we report to be freely available to all interested readers - so unlike many other newspapers and media websites, we have NO PAYWALL on our website. The Reader relies wholly on the support of our valued advertisers, as well as readers who voluntarily contribute. Want to ensure that local, independent journalism survives in our town? You can help support the Reader for as little as $1.