These concerts mark the first time in nine years that the Ninth, with full orchestra and chorus, will have been heard in Marin County.

The two performances will take place at Dominican University’s Angelico Hall on Saturday, May 19th at 8:00pm and Sunday, May 20th at 2:00pm.

“Alle Menschen werden Brüder” — all men will become brothers – is the ecstatic call from Friedrich Schiller’s poem, An die Freude (Ode to Joy), which both orchestra and chorus sing together in the finale of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor.

Mill Valley Philharmonic’s mission of community collaboration reflects this call to humanity by bringing together musicians and choristers from all across the Bay Area.

Our singers come from the Dominican Chorale, directed by Francisco Ortiz, as well as from Marin Symphony Chorus, Marin Oratorio, California Redwood Chorale, Oakland Symphony Chorus, Berkeley Community Chorus, Diablo Valley Chorus and California Redwood Chorale.

The soloists are soprano, Dr. Julia Nielsen; alto, Elizabeth Baker; tenor, Sergio González; and baritone, Igor Vieira.  All four soloists have commanded the concert and opera stages.

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Conducting Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is somewhat of a “book-end” for Mill Valley Philharmonic director, Laurie Cohen.  She studied it for four years and at the beginning of her conducting career, twenty years ago. (She also played the triangle part.)  And now, Cohen will conduct the symphony in her final concerts before she retires from Mill Valley Philharmonic, the orchestra she founded eighteen seasons ago.