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Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival
Presented by the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc.
Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival Opening Symphony Concert
Friday, June 24, 8:15 p.m.
Redlands Bowl at Smiley Park between Eureka and Grant, Brookside and Olive
Opening Redlands Bowl concert features America’s Tenor, Daniel Rodriguez
The spirit of Mario Lanza will hover over the Redlands Bowl at the opening symphony concert of the 2005 Summer Music Festival when tenor Daniel Rodriguez joins the Summer Festival Symphony Orchestra and conductor Frank Fetta on Friday, June 24.
Known soon after September 11, 2001 as America’s Singing Policeman, Rodriguez took his singing inspiration from listening to the voice of the legendary Lanza, and, for this concert, will perform many of Lanza’s best known songs.
Fetta, beginning his 21st year as Artistic Advisor for the Summer Music Festival, will conduct the orchestra composed of members of the San Bernardino Symphony.
“I am anxious to continue the grand tradition of presenting orchestral music that was at the inception of the Redlands Bowl,” said Fetta in a recent telephone interview.
Observing the traditional opening of the season’s first concert, the program will commence with Wayne Bohrnstedt’s “Festival Fanfare” and the National Anthem with a full color guard posting the colors.
Fetta then will conduct the orchestra in Dvorjak’s “Carnival Overture,” a work written during the three years the nationalistic Czech composer lived and worked in the United States.
The orchestra also will play excerpts from “Star Wars” and “Capricio Espagnol”, a light and whimsical 1887 work by Rimsky-Korsakov.
“All of these orchestral works are particularly well-suited to this venue under the stars and to the lightness of an opening concert,” said Fetta.
Rodriguez, who started his serious vocal studies when he was ten, became one of the official singers for the New York Police Department after singing the National Anthem in 1996 for 2,000 of his fellow Police Academy graduates. Since his a cappella performances of “God Bless America” just after the 9-11 tragedies, Rodriguez received an invitation to study with Placido Domingo and begin to live his dream of becoming a professional singer.
“Daniel is very musical with a beautiful voice,” said Fetta, having directed him when he first performed at the Redlands Bowl two years ago. “When soloists perform with a full orchestra, everything right starts to happen. The combination brings out the glory of both.”
Rodriguez, who has recorded three CDs, will sing a full set of Lanza songs, including “Be My Love,” “Serenade,” “and La Dona Mobile.” For the second half, he will sing “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” and “American Hymn” before concluding with “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot.”
This concert is co-sponsored by Clara Mae Clem. Like all Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival performances, it is free of charge, and a free-will offering will be collected at intermission. The ushers for the program will be representatives from Redlands Christian Center and members of the Rotary Club of Redlands. The intermission speaker will be David Raff, Chairman of the Board of the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc.
The Redlands Bowl is located on Eureka Street just south of Brookside Avenue in Redlands. For information and directions, call (909) 793-7316 or visit the Web site at www.redlandsbowl.org.
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