Fraser Valley Symphony presents season finale concert

Performance on Sunday, June 5 features pianist Mark Anderson

Pianist Mark Anderson is the featured soloist at a concert with the Fraser Valley Symphony Orchestra on June 5.

Pianist Mark Anderson is the featured soloist at a concert with the Fraser Valley Symphony Orchestra on June 5.

The Fraser Valley Symphony presents its grand finale performance of the season on Sunday, June 5 at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium (32315 South Fraser Way).

The concert, Dvorak and Saint-Saens, begins at 3 p.m. and features guest soloist Mark Anderson, an international prize-winning pianist. Anderson joins the symphony for the second Piano Concerto of Camille Saint-Saens, a fiery work by the great French pianist and composer.

Anderson’s recordings and performances as recitalist, soloist and chamber musician have met with wide critical acclaim.

In recital, Anderson, a Steinway artist, has appeared at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Weill Hall, the Kennedy Center and elsewhere throughout Europe and the United States.

A native of the San Francisco Bay area,  Anderson is assistant professor at the University of B.C. School of Music and also performs with his piano-duo/duet and life partner Canadian pianist Michelle Mares.

Rounding out the program will be Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9: From the New World. Written during Dvorak’s years in New York City, it is a work which fuses Old World style with elements of American folk music, as is so famously heard in the second movement’s beautiful Going Home theme.

Now in its 32nd year, the Fraser Valley Symphony is the premier community orchestra of the region. Lindsay Mellor is conductor.

Tickets for the concert are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, and $5 for children 12 and under.

They are available online at fraservalleysymphony.org, King’s Music, Tourism Abbotsford Visitor Centre (Abbotsford), Black Bond Books (Mission).

Tickets are also sold at the door, if available. For more information visit the website or call 604-744-9110.

Abbotsford News