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Arts & Entertainment

Classics at the Mello

The Santa Cruz Symphony will come to the Mello Center on Sunday, bringing world-class classical music and a reminder of the importance of staying positive.

The Henry J. Mello Center for Performing Arts has been a bastion of creativity and expression, as well as appreciation for the arts, in Watsonville for more than 15 years. On Sunday, the Santa Cruz County Symphony will take the stage once again, keeping the classics—and, in a way, the late Sen. Henry Mello’s memory—alive.

“When we use the term ‘classic,’ it means that it will have meaning at any time,” says Larry Granger, maestro of the Santa Cruz Symphony. “I think this music has meaning for everybody.”

It seems likely that Mello would have agreed. The son of Portuguese immigrants, Mello was born in 1924—scant years before the Great Depression. He was a worker in the apple orchards who went on to become the first Watsonville native to be elected to state Legislature.

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Mello also was a great jazz pianist and accordion player. He certainly understood the dramatic rises and falls, the heart-rending joys and tragic defeats, the struggles and conquests, of a classical composer’s works.

“In the earthquake of ’89, the school lost its auditorium,” says Richard Vasquez, chairman of the Parajo Valley Performing Arts Association and interim executive director of the Mello. “The reason the Mello exists is because [Henry Mello] was the one who brought money into Watsonville. One thing that’s very pertinent is that Henry was a musician, and a very good musician. So it was fitting that the performing arts center should be in his name.”

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Though the seating capacity at the , with 766 seats, is less than other venues in the county, such as the Civic Center, Granger is quick to sing its praises.

"It’s the closest thing to a concert hall we have in the county,” he says. “The acoustics are great; it’s designed like an opera house—sound projects quite well. We always look forward to playing there.”

Sunday’s performance will be comprised of symphonies from Beethoven, and Mozart, a suite from Boyce, and dance performances. Another highlight of the show will be the internationally acclaimed Pacific Trio—Edith Orloff, John Walz and Roger Wilkie—playing Beethoven’s exciting Triple Concerto, which features solos on cello, piano and violin.

“We’ve been deemed the ‘Jewel of Monterey Bay Area’ because of our facility,” Vasquez says, proudly. Still, he says he feels the Mello Center doesn’t always receive the recognition it deserves.

“I’ve been going to the symphony shows—they’re excellent shows,” he says. “The difficulty—and this is a general statement—is a lot of people in Santa Cruz don’t want to come to Watsonville. In the long run, I’d like to see it where the Mello is a viable organization people know about and see. We want it to be pertinent.”

Regardless of the willingness of symphony-goers to make the short drive to South County, Maestro Granger asserts that the audience at the Mello Center has been the Santa Cruz County Symphony’s fastest-growing audience in the past two or three years.

Granger's point about the classics retaining their meaning, despite the era, rings true on several levels.

Mozart’s final symphonies were written in the last few years of his life. Despite the composer’s failing health at a very young age, these final works fairly burst with undeniable joy. At a time when the economy in the United States is at its lowest point in more than 50 years and the unemployment rate is still on the rise, remaining optimistic in the face of adversity certainly seems relevant.

is at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20-65. The symphony will perform the same set at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 8 p.m. Saturday.

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