The Golden Season’s third program opens with Aaron Copland’s famous “Fanfare for the Common Man”, arguably the most stirring and famous fanfare ever written. Verdi’s overture to La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny) explores the currents of nature, nurture, and free will in a rich tapestry of beautiful melody and orchestration. Mendelssohn’s dark, dramatic String Symphony No. 10 was written as a single movement by the composer when he was just 14 years old. In contrast, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B minor is one of his last great organ works, monumental in both form and style. And Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” represents what the composer knew to be the zenith of his symphonic compositional career: of it, he said, “I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.”

Albert Campbell is the organist and choir director at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Livermore. He formerly served other Episcopal churches in California, and he was also on the faculty at UC, Santa Barbara.

Guest conductor Dawn Harms leads an active musical life as a violinist, violist, chamber musician, and conductor. A member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and associate concertmaster of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Harms also performs as co-concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She was chosen to be one of the fellows at the exclusive American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, where she worked with some of the top conductors in the world. Harms is the co-founder and music director of the Music at Kirkwood chamber music festival and currently serves on the music faculty at Stanford University.