Last minute soloist impresses Tucson Symphony audience
“When you fly in from New York on just over 48 hours notice… you deserve a standing ovation.”
On Wednesday, 14 February 2024, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra called Siwoo Kim. Bella Hristova had cancelled, and the orchestra needed a soloist for Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1 that Friday.
Price wrote the concerto in 1939; it was found in 2009 in an abandoned house where she had spent her summers. Siwoo had played it once before, with the Walla Walla Symphony the previous November. Tucson was his debut with the orchestra, under guest conductor Aram Demirjian.
When you fly in from New York on just over 48 hours notice to fill in for a violinist on a relatively unknown concerto that’s never been played by the orchestra with whom you are soloing, you deserve a standing ovation. Actually, you deserve a mid-concerto standing‑o, or several in the case of Friday night’s Tucson Symphony Orchestra concert with Siwoo Kim at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.
Cathalena E. Burch reviewed the concert at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall for the Arizona Daily Star. The program opened with Arturo Márquez’s Conga del Fuego Nuevo and closed with Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony.
Read the full review at Arizona Daily Star (opens in a new tab)
