Symphony San Jose Executive Artist Director Robert Massey has an interesting history with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, the San Jose native who is the featured soloist for the symphony’s season opener the first weekend in October. (How featured is he? It’s called “Jon Nakamatsu and the Jazz Age” for a reason.)
Massey and Nakamatsu first met in the months after Nakamatsu won the prestigious Van Cliburn award in 1997 and was performing in Memphis. Massey worked in marketing for the performing arts center there and had responsibility for picking up visiting artists from the airport.
Award-winning pianist Jon Nakamatsu speaks to the Rotary Club of San Jose on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. Nakamatsu is performing in the season opening program for Symphony San Jose on Oct. 5-6, 2024. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
Nakamatsu said while he meets people like that all the time, he remembered Massey for a very fun reason: “We had a day off and he said, ‘Hey, do you want to go to Graceland?’ and I said, ‘Of course I want to go to Graceland!’ So that’s our history.”
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There’s no Elvis Presley music on the Oct. 5-6 program — which is inspired is by the Roaring ’20s and featuring Nakamatsu performing George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Nakamatsu says he’s also looking forward to performing Aaron Copland’s blues-inspired Piano Concerto, which he hasn’t performed before.
“It’s a very short, kind of thorny but really jazzy piece that I think goes well with (“Rhapsody in Blue”),” Nakamatsu said at the Rotary Club meeting.
“It’s incredible to be in the California Theatre as a performer but also just as a San Josean,” he said. “Not having grown up with the California Theater and now having that, I think, is an incredible thing for the city, just culturally. It’s a wonderful place to sit in, let alone make music in.”
There’s a 7:30 p.m. concert Saturday night and a 2:30 p.m. matinee Sunday.
The season opener is being appropriately celebrated with a pre-concert Prohibition Party dinner at the Silicon Valley Capital Club, a perfect opportunity to slip into a flapper dress and sip on speakeasy cocktails while listening to live jazz. The deadline to buy tickets is 4 p.m. Sept. 25, though, and no secret password will get you through the door after that.
Go to www.symphonysanjose.org for seats to the party or the concert.