Today, the Juilliard School graduate student and Chicago native will perform with Morgan and the Oakland symphony at 8:00 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway.

Also on the program tonight is the world premiere of a commissioned piece by American composer Ingram Marshall and a piece from Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Murray will perform a violin concerto by African-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The piece she and the Oakland symphony will perform is a violin concerto whose orchestral parts sank into the ocean with the Titanic ship in 1912.

Coleridge-Taylor, who had the composition shipped on the Titanic from London to New York, produced a similar composition in time for its premier in the United States.

Morgan, who has been the Oakland symphony director for 14 years, said the interesting history behind Coleridge-Taylor's violin concerto might attract music lovers who are familiar with the composer's work and the ill-fated ship. He also wants to encourage young string instrument students to attend the concert to hear Murray perform.

"She is one of a few African-American violinist soloists currently traveling across country," Morgan said about the Murray, who has performed with orchestras in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Kansas City and Washington, D.C.

Aside from Murray's performance, Morgan will be conducting the world premiere of "Bright Kingdoms" by Marshall. The piece is the first work commissioned by the Magnum Opus project and Silicon Valley venture capitalist and violinist Kathryn Gould.

Marshall's work has been influenced by his interest in Indonesian and electronic music. The Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the St. Louis Symphony, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Kronos Quartet and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music have commissioned the former Bay Area resident's work.

Tonight's program will conclude with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor. According to the Oakland symphony's press release, the piece is "a work that aims to make amends with the then-Soviet regime in power while expressing the anguish of living under tyranny."

In the coming months, the Oakland symphony's season will include the following performances: Mozart Mass in C minor on Feb. 20; the debut of artist DJ Spooky on March 19; the Young Artist Competition winners concert on April 23; and the "Let Us Break Bread" choral performance on May 21.

The 2003-04 seasons is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the Alameda County Art Commission, the Oakland Cultural Affairs Commission and the Oakland's Craft and Cultural Arts Department.

Tickets for tonight's performance range from $15 to $58 and may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets or by calling (510) 625-8497 or (415) 421-8497.

For information about the symphony visit www.oebs.org.

Reach Ana Facio Contreras at (510) 339-4506 or## acontreras@cctimes.com.

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