Go for Baroque. Be romantic. Get contemporary.
The Vallejo Center for the Arts will usher in a special performance Friday night by hosting the internationally acclaimed New Century Chamber Orchestra in its 2025-26 season-opening concert, featuring a program that spans three centuries of classical music.
Led by Music Director and celebrated violinist Daniel Hope, the ensemble will offer Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” with Hope as the soloist; Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings in E major; and Dobrinka Tabakova’s “Dawn” for violin, cello and strings.
Music begins at 7:30 p.m. in the historic Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St. Tickets are available at the theater’s box office or online at https://empresstheatre.org/event/new-century-3/.
Written in 1723, “The Four Seasons,” an audience favorite on the classical music circuit, is a group of four violin pieces, each expressing a season of the year and accompanied by sonnets, likely written by Vivaldi. His music illuminates events described in the poems, such as bird song and a fountain in spring, a thunderstorm in summer, a celebration of harvest in the fall, and the harsh chill of winter.
Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings, which premiered in Prague in 1878, is among the Czech composer’s most popular orchestral pieces. It works its magic in five movements. The first includes a dance-like theme; the second, a waltz; the third, a lively group of sounds in different tempos; the fourth, a slow, tranquil flow of melodies; and the fifth, a finale that reflects the spirit of a Bohemian village dance.
Written in 2007, Tabakova’s “Dawn” is a work for solo violin, solo cello and string orchestra. She wrote it as part of a three-piece composition called “Dawn-Day-Dusk.” The Bulgarian-British composer’s music, by all accounts luminous and lush, symbolizes the sunrise. The music has been featured in films (Jean-Luc Godard’s “Adieu au language”), dance (including for San Francisco Ballet), and has been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, BBC Radio 3, and the European Broadcasting Union.
Founded in 1992 and based in San Francisco, the New Century Chamber Orchestra brings together 19 string players in a reimagining of the concert experience. Performing without a conductor, except when led by a music director, the ensemble has become known for its aural and visual calling cards are precision, passion, and adventurous programming.
With Hope at the helm, the ensemble has a reputation for infusing new life into the classics while casting a spotlight on contemporary composers, such as Tabakova.
In a press statement, Hope said the orchestra’s “examination of music through the ages” is what inspires New Century to give some of its best performances.
“From the most famous works of the repertoire, like ‘The Four Seasons’ to this fresh, adventurous, contemporary work by the phenomenal Dobrinka Tabakova, this program will really highlight the remarkable energy and dynamic music-making of the orchestra,” he added.
Of the Vivaldi, Hope said, “It’s still as fresh as the day it was written. He was one of the most modern and courageous
composers of all time, and there’s nothing to beat it. I’m so happy to be doing it for the first time with New Century. It changes every time you play it and that has so much to do with your musical partners.”
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