Culver City Symphony | CRAIG SAFAN CIRCLE OVERTURE | World Premiere

Circle Overture by Craig Safan - World Premiere Performed by Culver City Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Clyde Mitchell

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ABOUT CIRCLE OVERTURE: Circle Overture was commissioned by the Orchestra for the 2023 California Festival. Our new Music Director-Conductor Clyde Mitchell had previously presented Craig Safan’s new score to Buster Keaton’s brilliant silent film, The General, and wanted the first notes he conducted as our Music Director to be by Craig.
Craig presented us with a rousing tribute to the late Helene Mirich Spear, who was Craig’s first piano teacher and CCSO violinist and Personnel Manager. The title refers to the musical system of keys, which rotate around a circle of 5 ascending notes from C-G-D-A-E, etc. Because Helene required Craig to practice his scales around this “circle of fifths” he created this new commission in such a manner. The piece begins and ends with a melancholy clarinet solo, interrupted by swirling and running fast passages and some bold brass fanfares.

ABOUT CRAIG SAFAN: Emmy-nominated and eight-time ASCAP award-winning composer Craig Safan has scored feature films, television, and documentaries as well as having three albums of his own music released. He has been commissioned to compose for ballet as well as for live performance of silent films and was given the Poledouris Film Music Legend Award at the International Film Music Festival in Cordoba, Spain. Safan’s music has been released on over fifty albums, most recently “L . A . Ex”, Craig's love letter to Los Angeles, released on Notefornote Music.

ABOUT CULVER CITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: In the Fall of 1964, Westchester Adult School offered a “String Workshop” class with instructor George Berres, a busy professional violinist. On March 1, 1965, the class gave its first concert, as the Westchester String Symphony, with 24 string players conducted by Berres. Five years later we had become the Marina del Rey Westchester Symphony, a full symphony orchestra, and in 1976 Frank Fetta became our second Music Director-Conductor.
Since 2000, we present a winter season as the Culver City Symphony Orchestra, now led by Music Director-Conductor Clyde Mitchell, and a summer season as the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony led by Music Director-Conductor Steven Allen Fox.
The Orchestra roster is a mix of professional musicians alongside local community players and students, with typically between 45 and 65 musicians performing in each concert. We present varied programs of symphonic music and concertos from the 18th Century through to contemporary works.
We support aspiring young musicians through our Parness Concerto Competition.
The Orchestra is funded by grants from Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Culver City Performing Arts Grant Program, and other grantors, and by individual and corporate donations and annual memberships through the SoCal Symphony Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

CREDITS:
Videography: Bob Young Photography
Program notes: Clyde Mitchell