Ode to summer

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, including the "Ode to Joy," is a favorite among Honolulu audiences, who can usually look forward to Honolulu Symphony performances during the holiday season. Those concerts are unlikely this year, with the symphony in bankruptcy and Blaisdell Concert Hall booked up for a Broadway musical starting Dec. 28.

So local audiences will have to get their fix of Beethoven early this year, courtesy of a visiting orchestra from Germany, the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg (New Chamber Philharmonic of Freiburg). The orchestra will join the Honolulu Symphony Chorus in the Ninth on Wednesday at Pearl City Cultural Center. The following Saturday, they will perform Verdi’s "Requiem" at the Blaisdell.

Founded in 1995, the Freiburg orchestra includes university students as well as experienced amateur and professional musicians. It has recorded several well-regarded CDs, including the Ninth Symphony and the "Requiem," has toured Italy and South America and is on the last leg of its first U.S. tour. Andreas Winnen, an award-winning composer who has an established reputation conducting new and student orchestras in Germany, is its leader.

Featured soloists will be soprano Tamara Bevard and mezzo-soprano Soon Cho, both of whom have performed extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe.

They will be joined by several artists familiar to local audiences: tenor Kip Wilborn, who starred in the Hawaii Opera Theatre’s production of Wagner’s "Die Walkuere"; bass Leslie "Buzz" Tennent, who teaches at Chaminade University; tenor Les Ceballos, vocal instructor at Kamehameha Schools; and bass John Mount, vocal professor at the University of Hawaii.