The Orchestra will also perform Paul Hindemith's Concert Music for Strings and Brass and Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor. Performances will take place Thursday, June 19, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 20, at 1 p.m.; Saturday, June 21, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, June 22, at 2 p.m. The Sunday performance is part of the Musically Speaking series which includes commentary from the podium. The Hindemith will not be performed on Sunday's program.

Joshua Roman, Seattle Symphony's 24-year-old Principal Cellist, regularly performs in clubs and other venues in the Seattle area and other cities, in addition to his role with the Orchestra. His repertoire ranges from collaborations with rock groups or singers to solo performances of sonatas by Kodaly and J.S. Bach. In Spring 2007, he was appointed Artistic Director of TownMusic, a recital series at Town Hall in Seattle. As a soloist, he has performed with Seattle Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Northwest Sinfonietta, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra and the Wyoming Symphony. Most recently, he has appeared in New York, Seattle, Tokyo and Osaka. He has collaborated with such musicians as Sergei Babayan, Earl Carlyss, Franklin Cohen, Desmond Hoebig, Paul Kantor, William Preucil, Lynn Ramsey, Marta Garcia Renart, Ann Schein, Joaquin Valdepenas, Virginia Weckstrom and Christian Zacharias. Roman has won top prizes in many competitions, including the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, Cleveland Cello Society and National Federation of Music Clubs.

At the close of the 2007–2008 season, Roman will launch a solo career and has signed with Opus 3 Artists. He will return to Seattle Symphony May 28-31, 2009 to perform the world premiere of David Stock's Cello Concerto under the direction of esteemed conductor James DePriest.

Ernest Bloch's Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody is an imaginative rendition of a famous Biblical passage, the lament of Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which invokes sounds of the composer's Jewish musical heritage. According to Bloch, the cello represents the voice of King Solomon, and its quasi-cadenza in the opening moments of the piece invokes the famous cry in the second verse of Ecclesiastes: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The solo part generally conveys a deep, sorrowful lyricism, though at times it also hints at dance. By contrast, the orchestra, according to Bloch, "is the voice of [Solomon's] age." Specifically, it suggests the opulence of the kingdom he ruled. Indeed, the composer fairly revels in lush orchestral textures, colorful evocations of oriental splendor, and noisy climaxes.

Paul Hindemith's Concert Music for Strings and Brass exemplifies a rejection of all the trappings of Romanticism in music — its lush harmonies, sweeping melodies, intense emotionalism, and frequent evocations of literary or other narrative programs — in favor of modernist lucidity.

Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor is close to the Austro-German classical ideal — that is, "pure" instrumental music, with no concrete narrative or pictorial allusions — but his colorful use of the orchestra adds an element of French sensuality. -- www.seattlesymphony.org