Allan Pollack
Conductor and Music Director

Allan Pollack has served as the Music Director and Conductor for Symphony of the Redwoods for the last fifteen years. A prominent musician in the Bay Area, he has taught at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory, and the San Francisco Community Music Center.

He currently teaches woodwinds and chamber music at UC Berkeley and has a full studio of private students.

A highlight of his musical education was five years of study with Boston Symphony clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo. He earned his Ph.D. in Composition from UC Berkeley in 1984, has received recognition as a composer, conductor, and clarinetist, and plays a mean jazz saxophone.

One of the founders of the Mendocino Music Festival, he has served as its Artistic Director and conductor for the last fifteen years. His commitment to excellence has inspired musicians and audiences alike and has been an invaluable contribution to the music community of the north coast.

November 3 and 4, 2007

Rebecca Ayres is a member of the Symphony of the Redwoods; she is Principal Flutist of the Mendocino Music Festival, the Napa Symphony, and the Fremont Symphony.  She has also held the position of Principal Flute of the Phantom of the Opera Orchestra, the Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, The Omaha Symphony and Opera Omaha, and played piccolo and flute with the San Francisco Symphony. 

Rebecca has performed in many productions of the San Francisco Symphony, including the 2003 and 2006 March Pops concert, the 2002 Family Christmas Concert, the 2001 January Chinese New Year Celebration with Amy Tan, the 1994 Summer Black & White Ball, the 1986 Spring Mozart Festival, and the 1985 Summer New and Unusual Concert Series.  With the San Francisco Symphony, she has been on tour on many occasions, including the 2006 Lucerne Festival Tour, 1996 March National Tour, the 1990 June Beethoven Festival, and the European Tour of October, 1985.  In September of this year, she again toured Europe with the San Francisco Symphony, playing concerts in London, Hanover, Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfort, and Lucerne.

San Francisco Opera and Ballet productions in which Rebecca has taken part include Carmen, Don Pasquale, Salome, and The Nutcracker.

Rebecca’s teachers include Paul Renzi, Principal Flute, San Francisco Symphony, 1980 to the present, Julius Baker at the New England Conservatory of Music, in the fall of 1981, and Julius Baker in New York City, Spring and Summer, 1980.

November 3 and 4, 2007

Dan Levitan, Harp Soloist for Concert #1, November 3 and 4, 2007, Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp.
Mr. Levitan is Principal Harpist of three professional orchestras: Marin Symphony (since 1984), Symphony Silicon Valley (newly formed orchestra in place of San Jose Symphony, where he was Principal Harpist from 1978 until its closure in 2002), as well as Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley. In addition to having performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, and Ballet orchestras, he is sought after as a soloist with orchestras, choirs, and other ensembles throughout Northern California. Dan¹s debut performance of the harp concerto composed by Craig Bohmler with Barbara Day Turner conducting the San Jose Chamber Orchestra on May 20th, 2007, received an immediate standing ovation. The concerto in four movements, duration of 25 to 30 minutes, written for him and commissioned by him received overwhelming praise from the San Jose Mercury, as well as a personal thank you from the reviewer - Colin Seymour. Dan is featured on several commercial recordings: "10th Anniversary Concert," his first solo C.D.; "Shades of Love," voice with flute and harp; and "Moonlight," a selection of music including both solo harp and flute with harp. Dan's recording credits also include Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols for Chorus and Solo Harp," Claude Debussy's "Trio for flute, viola, and harp," works by Lou Harrison, and numerous T.V. and film recordings. Soon to be released is a flute and harp recording of music that traces and celebrates ethnic music.

33419 TURNSTONE PLACE * FREMONT, CA. 94555 *USA
(510) 795-8004 Work & Home Phone
harpmandan@comcast.net

February 23 and 24, 2008

David McCarroll, soloist in the Prokofieff Violin Concerto, has been described by the IndieLONDON as “a great talent” who plays “with an impressive depth of feeling.” David has performed as a soloist with the London Mozart Players, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the North State Symphony, and the Yehudi Menuhin School Orchestra. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in many venues throughout the U.K. including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, and Fairfield Halls. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he has given concerts in Switzerland, Tunisia, Thailand, and the United States. He has played in many chamber ensembles with musicians including Bonnie Hampton, Violaine Meloncon, Natasha Brofsky, Katherine Murdock, and Maria Lambros. In the summers of 2005 and 2006, he was a participant in the prestigious Yellow Barn chamber music festival where he received the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Scholarship. He is also a past participant of the Gstaad (Switzerland), Gower (Wales), Manchester Quartetfest (England), Wyastone (Wales), and Spittalfields (London) music festivals. He has participated in masterclasses and lessons with musicians such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Zakhar Bron, Dora Schwartzberg, Arnold Steinhardt, Midori, Robert Mann, Jamie Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Zvi Zeitlin, Mauricio Fuchs, Robert Masters, Maciej Rakowski, Berent Korfker, Paul Kantor, Gilbert Kalish, and Ruggiero Ricci.

David was born in Santa Rosa, California in 1986 and grew up on his family’s Sonoma County farm. He began studying the violin with Helen Payne Sloat at the age of 4. At 8, he attended the Crowden School of Music in Berkeley studying with Anne Crowden. When David was 13, he received an invitation to join an international group of 60 young music students at The Yehudi Menuhin School outside London where he studied for five years with Simon Fischer. In 2004, David received a full scholarship to join violinist Donald Weilerstein's studio at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he is now studying. David plays a 1761 violin made by A & J Gagliano.

April 5 and 6, 2008

Soprano Paula Goodman Wilder will sing Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer. Ms. Wilder's performances have been described as  “vibrant and intense”, (Janos Gereben, San Francisco Classical Voice), “spine chilling in perfection” (Keith Kreitman, Tri Valley Herald). She has been praised for her “vocal force, irresistible [...] full-bodied and impeccably placed” (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle) and for high notes whose beauty “could bring tears to anyone's eyes” (Tri Valley Herald).  Local audiences may remember her performances with the Mendocino Music Festival in the Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony, the Verdi Requiem, and Brahms Requiem,  and in Susan Waterfall’s chamber concerts, as well as her portrayal of Hanna Glavari in Opera Fresca’s Merry Widow (April 2005).   Recent engagements further afield include the role of Minnie in Puccini’s Fanciulla del West for both Opera Santa Barbara and Berkeley Opera, Leonora in Il Trovatore in the Berlin Konzerthaus, Manon Lescautfor West Bay Opera,  Lady Macbeth for Berkeley Opera, Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) with North Bay Opera, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the Mondavi Center.  Upcoming engagements (as of this writing) include Minnie in Fanciulla del West for Rimrock Opera in Montana (October 2007), the Strauss Four Last Songs for Palo Alto Philharmonic (Feb 2008), Senta in Der Fliegender Holländer for West Bay Opera in May 2008, and Elisabetta in Don Carlo planned for 2009 with North Bay Opera.

A native of Berkeley, Ms. Wilder holds a masters degree in French Literature from UC Berkeley, and attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in Vocal Performance.