Bella Musica Orchestra Presents:  Brahms Piano Concerto No.  1 with noted
Bay Area pianist Matthew Edwards & Bizet Symphony in C.  Arlene Sagan,
Director.

Two Bay Area Concerts:  Saturday May 22 at 8 PM at Unitarian Universalist
Church at 1 Lawson Rd, Kensington Saturday June 5 at 8 PM at First
Congregational Church at Dana & Durant, Berkeley

$15 donation requested.  $10 for students & seniors.  To reserve tickets or
for more information call (510) 525-5393 or email us at [log in to unmask]
Please include the number of tickets and the concert date.  Wheelchair
accessible.  Bella is a SFEMS affiliate.

Mr.  Edwards has enjoyed a growing reputation as a recitalist and chamber
musician, appearing regularly at Old First Church Concerts, Noontime
Concerts, Trinity Chamber Concerts, Pacifica Arts and Heritage Series,
and Berkeley's Maybeck Hall.  This is Mr.  Edwards' second appearance with
the Bella Musica Orchestra.  Last spring, he performed the Mozart Piano
Concerto No.  24 in C minor to standing ovations.  It took 6 years of
intense struggle before Johannes Brahms was able to complete his first
Piano Concerto.  Written by the 28 year old Brahms as a Requiem for his
beloved mentor, Robert Schumann, this titanic masterpiece received a
decidedly unfavorable reception at its first performance at Leipzig
(replete with hissing) and was not published until fifteen years later.
The concert will begin with the delightfully sparkling rhythms and
sensuously lyrical melodies of the Symphony in C Major written by another
precocious composer, the 17 year old Georges Bizet (he was accepted by the
Paris Conservatory before his tenth birthday!) It remained in manuscript
form until its discovery and subsequent first performance in 1935.

--Alan Sagan