Bringing season to dramatic finish

MAY marks the end of the subscription season of concerts for most classical musical ensembles in the Bay Area; it's often the May finale that features the season's most people-pleasing music.

Here's a sampling of what's coming up during the next fortnight.

One most thoroughly delightful offering will be the Oakland East Bay Symphony's "Let Us Break Bread Together" at 8 p.m. May 19 at the Paramount Theatre, 21st Street and Broadway, Oakland.

The genesis of this special concert dates back to 1991 when Maestro Michael Morgan, then the new kid on the OEBS podium, conjured up the idea of a yearly choral music festival. One of his initial contacts was the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.

He discovered that Ellen Hoffman, the piano accompanist, was not only an accomplished jazz pianist, but also a composer of note. Morgan asked if she would arrange a popular spiritual for chorus and orchestra. She accepted and chose the beloved "Let Us Break Bread Together."

Her exuberant result was not only a terrific hit, it was also chosen to be the theme for what became a signature annual concert for OEBS.

For this year's concert, Hoffman has composed a real humdinger. Titled "A Thousand Voices," the new piece is, at Morgan's request, a musical tribute to the late great jazz pianist Ed Kelly.

Kelly passed his musical genes on in abundance to his son, Terrance Kelly, the well-loved musical director of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. The elder Kelly had yet another strong connection to OEBS: He played up a storm at the piano during the symphony's first "Break Bread" in'91.

The new piece is for orchestra, chorus, vocal soloist and piano. Words, by Bay Area poet Pamela Barnes and Hoffman, are intermingled with verses by Rumi, the great 13th century mystical Persian poet. The music is an artful mix of classical, jazz and blues.

The evening's participating choruses will gather to sing it, along with Patti Cathcart of the popular Bay Area-based duo "Tuck & Patti."

If that isn't enough, the concert will have another appealing world premiere of a piece commissioned from award-winning film score composer Laurence Rosenthal. Rosenthal has composed more than 100 scores, including music for "A Raisin in the Sun" and "The Miracle Worker."

His new piece is based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls." Calling it "very atmospheric and introspective," he says it "reflects the fact that nothing ever stays the same; everything is ephemeral" -- even the cosmos.

Participating choruses, in addition to the OIC, will be the Oakland Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Magen Solomon and Lynn Morrow; the Lucy Kinchen Chorale and the popular Mt. Eden High School Choir.

Tickets cost $15 to $60. Call (510) 625-8497 or (415) 421-8497 or visit http://www.oebs.org.

Fremont celebration

The Fremont Symphony, directed by David Sloss, presents an especially celebratory concert at the Smith Center for Fine and Performing Arts on the Ohlone College campus, 43600 Mission Blvd., Fremont.

The concerts are in honor of the 50th anniversary of Fremont's founding. Music chosen to accomplish this joyful task includes "Appalachian Spring" by Aaron Copland; John Williams' evocative "Hymn to New England"; Ferde Grofe's playful "Grand Canyon Suite"; selections from Bernstein's "Times Square, 1944"; Howard Hanson's "Maypole Dances" from "Merry Mount"; "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and topping it all off, new works by two Bay Area composers: Mark Volkert's especially commissioned "Fanfare for Fremont" andKirke Mechem's "The Jayhawk Overture." Winners all.

Tickets are $20 to $42. Call (510) 794-1659 or visit http:// www.fremontsymphony.org.

Another appealing concert will be presented by the Diablo Symphony, conducted by Maestra Joyce Johnson Hamilton, at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek.

A high point of the event will be recent Stanford University graduate Raymond Wang's sure-to-be dazzling performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Wang received the Diablo Symphony's most vociferous ovation ever following his performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto in D-minor with the group last year.

Also on the program are the "Catfish Row" Suite from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," Copland's "Music for the Theatre" and Morton Gould's "American Symphonette No. 2." Tickets are $12 to $22. Call (925) 9437469 or visit http://www.dlrca.org.

Peninsula music

Peninsula concert lovers also will have an opportunity to revel in "Rhapsody in Blue" when pianist Thomas Hansen heats up the ivories in front of the Peninsula Symphony, under the direction of Mitchell Sardou Klein, at 8 p.m. May 19 at the Performing Arts Center, 600 N. Delaware St., San Mateo, and 8 p.m. May 20 at Flint Center on the De Anza College campus, off Highway 85 at Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino.

The stirring all-American program also includes Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," the "Concert Suite" by Gwyneth Walker, Hanson's Symphony No. 2, the "Romantic," "Amber Waves" by Gould, and Roy Harris' "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."