The Performing Arts Center presents the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on May 1 at 3 p.m. in Hodgson Hall. Principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles will make his Athens debut leading the ASO, and he will perform Mozart’s Concerto in F Major for Three Pianos along with pianists Robert Henry and Sarah Elizabeth Gibson.
The program will also feature Mozart’s 29th symphony, Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and What the Wildflowers Tell Me from Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony in an arrangement by Britten.
A native of Scotland, Runnicles has been music director of the San Francisco Opera since 1992. Atlanta pianist Robert Henry made his debut with the ASO in July 2003. He has enjoyed success in nearly every important piano competition in the world. Eighteen-year-old pianist and composer Sarah Elizabeth Gibson served as principal keyboardist for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2001 to 2004, during which time two of her compositions were premiered in Symphony Hall.
A pre-concert lecture will be given by Allen Barbee of Georgia Perimeter College. The lecture begins 45 minutes prior to the performance and is free.
