Pacifica Chamber Orchestra opens its eighth concert season

EVERETT — The beginning of an orchestral ensemble’s new season is an exciting time for its musicians.

Pacifica Chamber Orchestra’s eighth season opens Sunday afternoon with a concert that artistic director and concertmaster Fred Chu says is “full of color, passion, energy and joy.”

The highlight of Sunday’s program is sure to be the appearance of pianist Chi-Chen Wu performing the Australian composer Malcolm Williamson’s Concerto No. 2 for piano and string orchestra. Written in 1960, the piece has two movements. Chu describes the concerto as “energetic and jazzy.”

Wu, who teaches at the University of Wyoming, has performed internationally. She earned her doctoral degree in piano performance from the New England Conservatory. She has concertized as a soloist and chamber music player throughout the world. As a recording artist, her album of the complete Schumann sonatas for piano and violin has won two gold medals from the Global Music Awards.

The concert will begin with Claude Debussy’s “Petit Suite,” arranged for wind quintet. The orchestra’s woodwinds also will perform American composer William Grant Still’s “Miniatures for Wind Quintet.”

The finale will be Czech composer Leos Janacek’s “Idyll.”

“It is so romantic, joyful and sweet that I am confident that it will melt any listener’s heart,” Chu said.

The chamber orchestra’s season is funded in part by the Everett Cultural Arts Commission.

If you go

Pacifica Chamber Orchestra performs at 3 p.m. Oct. 1 at First Presbyterian Church, 2936 Rockefeller Ave., Everett.

Tickets — $20 general admission and $15 for seniors and students — are available in advance through Brown Paper Tickets or at the door on concert day with cash or check only.

Pacifica Chamber Orchestra is available to perform outreach concerts for elementary school students. For more information, call 425-743-0255 or email johull52@gmail.com.

Visit www.pacificachamberorchestra.org for the orchestra’s 2017-18 season schedule.