DOWNEY - We have a winner!"We" is the Downey Symphony, and the winner is a clarinetist named Joseph Morris, recipient of our most recent Young Artist Competition. We don't "have" him exclusively, exactly, since he has won so many awards that we have to share him a lot, but Saturday night we guarantee Joe Morris live and in person in front of our orchestra in our city's Civic Theatre playing up a storm with some very nifty Mozart. We have a few informative details right here for you: our opening concert of the new season is Saturday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m. Downey's theatre is at 8435 Firestone Blvd. between Embassy Suites and Brookshire Avenue. Parking is free; easy access from Brookshire. Theater box office opens at 6 p.m., all seats are excellent, tickets are $35, $30 and $10. Downey's symphony has been hailed as one of the best metropolitan orchestras in Southern California, and our music director, Sharon Lavery, is a 24-carat treasure. Come early for her pre-concert talk at 7:15 p.m., and to enjoy a lobby display of macro-photography by nature artist Carolina De Toro. Now back to that clarinetist in the Winner's Circle, Joe Morris. Six paragraphs of small type from his biography just begin to cover the accolades showered on him, whether for performances as a soloist, a chamber musician, or an orchestra performer. So let's just say it comes as no surprise that Joe, 22, has already won his first professional position with the Madison (Wisconsin) Symphony. Bravo. Music programmed for this concert is Rossini's witty overture to The Thieving Magpie, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, From the New World. The solo work, Mozart's Concerto in A Major for Clarinet and Orchestra, was premiered less than two months before the composer's death at age 35, but it lives still in the good hands and sensitive mind of Joseph Morris. Coming concerts by the Downey Symphony are on Feb. 1 and April 5, 2014. Learn more on our website, downeysymphony.org.

********** Published: Oct. 31, 2013 - Volume 12 - Issue 29