The Western New York Chamber Orchestra will open its 2004-2005 Classics season with visits from distinguished conductor Glen Cortese and mezzo-soprano Emily Johnson on Saturday, Sept. 18 at the State University of New York at Fredonia. The performance will begin at 8 p.m. in King Concert Hall at Rockefeller Arts Center.
 
Tickets are $15 for the general public, $12 for seniors and $6 for students and can be purchased by visiting the Central Ticket Office at the Williams Center in the heart of the SUNY Fredonia campus or by calling (716) 673-3501.
 
Mr. Cortese is the music director of the Oregon Mozart Players and was the resident conductor of the Florida Philharmonic during the 2001-2002 season. He is currently in his 17th season as music director of the New York Chamber Sinfonia.
 
“I’ve been a New Yorker for years,” said Mr. Cortese in a recent interview, “and I love not only New York City but all of New York State. It seems everywhere I go in New York, I find something special...I’ve heard great things about the facility in Fredonia and about the orchestra, and I look forward to coming.”
 
Mr. Cortese has appeared as guest conductor both in the United States and abroad with such orchestras as the New Jersey Symphony, Mexico City Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Sofia Festival Orchestra. He also served as an assistant conductor to the New York Philharmonic from 1990 through 1992 and worked with such distinguished figures as Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit and Erich Leinsdorf.
 
A recipient of the Arthur Judson Foundation Award for a Young American Conductor, Mr. Cortese has recorded on the Titanic, Newport Classics, Phoenix, Owl, CMS and Le Crepuscule du Disc labels.
 
The Sept. 18 concert will have additional significance for Mr. Cortese — he will lead the orchestral premiere of his original composition, “In Dreams.” Based on a trio of poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Mr. Cortese explained that “In Dreams” is an exploration into the mysteries of the human subconscious.
 
“The thing I find interesting is that everyone dreams. Dreaming is a shared experience, an experience that everyone has,” he said. “But at the same time, dreaming is an intensely personal thing, something completely unique to the dreamer. The Poe poems fascinated me because they offered an insight into one person’s dreams. It is really a glimpse into a private world.”
 
“In Dreams” will feature mezzo soprano Emily Johnson, a frequent collaborator of Mr. Cortese. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and the Actors’ Studio Drama School in New York, Ms. Johnson has appeared in numerous operatic and musical theatre productions throughout the country. She is a 2003 Liederkranz Foundation Competition award winner and has toured as a Glimmerglass Young American Artist. She made her Utah Festival Opera debut as Maddalena in “Rigoletto” this past summer and was recently awarded the second-place prize in the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Voice Competition.
 
“I am very glad to have the opportunity to participate in this premiere,” Ms. Johnson said. “The poetry of the piece is based in dreams, and Maestro Cortese knows that I respond well to that. My voice has a broad range, and he wrote for my entire range…It’s really a great chance to show off my instrument and my temperament.”
 
Ms. Johnson will also serve as narrator during a performance of Revel’s “Ma Mere L’Oye,” also known as the “Mother Goose” suite. Beethoven’s rousing Seventh Symphony will complete the program.
 
For more information about the Western New York Chamber Orchestra Classics Season, call (716) 673-3463 or check the web. a