Best Wishes to Joana Carneiro!

                                                       Joana Carneiro, Berkeley Symphony Music Director 
                                                    Photo: Rodrigo de Souza. Courtesy Berkeley Symphony

Berkeley Symphony releases news on why Joana Carneiro has withdrawn from the last two programs, and now the January program:

BERKELEY, CA (January 3, 2017) – Berkeley Symphony announced today that Music Director Joana Carneiro has withdrawn from the Berkeley Symphony concert on Thursday, January 26 at 8 pm at Zellerbach Hall. Carneiro is pregnant and is under doctor's advice not to conduct or travel. The concert will be conducted by Christian Reif. The Orchestra will perform the Bay Area premiere of Mason Bates’ Cello Concerto with Joshua Roman, to whom the work is dedicated, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4.

Christian Reif is resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor of the SFS Youth Orchestra.

I told a friend last year that either Ms. Carneiro was pregnant and under doctor's orders not to travel or she was ill. I am relieved that she's pregnant, needless to say! I hope the rest of her pregnancy is uneventful and that she has a safe delivery and lovely child.