Gather the entire family for the next Diablo Symphony Orchestra digital premiere on YouTube this Thursday, February 4th at 7:30 p.m. The program highlights works performed during DSO Family Concerts held at the Lesher Center for the Arts. Join this musical adventure on the Symphony’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj_USGymUZM, or by going to the Symphony’s homepage at website www.diablosymphony.org (just click the picture under heading “Family Concerts – DSO Digital Premiere”). DSO Music Director Matilda Hofman also sits down and talks with Justin Levitt and Kevin Menegus of the Fratello Marionettes. This East Bay marionette troupe uses the “caberet style” of manipulation, where the puppet and puppeteer perform in full view of the audience while telling a story.
 
The Fratello Marionettes joins forces with the orchestra to tell the stories of favorite nursery characters in Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite”. The Symphony then tells the musical tale of sorcery gone awry in Paul Dukas’ “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, widely known as the music accompanying Mickey Mouse in the Walt Disney movie “Fantasia”. While the Sorcerer, his master, is away, a young apprentice enchants a broom to fill a well with water. However, once the well is full, he can’t remember the incantation to stop the broom and desperately chops it in half. Instead, both pieces continue the task with increasing speed, bringing more and more water to the over-flowing well. A disastrous flood is imminent when the Sorcerer suddenly returns and speaks the magic words, stilling the brooms and restoring calm. Four quick concluding chords suggest the Sorcerer’s displeasure with his errant apprentice. Both works were recorded at the orchestra’s Feb. 19, 2016 Family Concert. 
 
The program also includes “From Another Time” by Justin Levitt, award winning pianist and composer. This illustrative work, based on reminiscences of Russian life, was premiered by the orchestra on Feb. 17, 2017. Levitt has also written music for the Diablo Ballet, used both in live performances and short films.