Born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York to Italian immigrants, Christopher Caliendo was invited to Los Angeles to finish his graduate work at UCLA by Henry Mancini after winning his Scholarship for Film Composition. After orchestrating "Victor Victoria", Mr. Mancini introduced Christopher to television composer Jerrold Immel where began a five year collaboration composing and orchestrating for CBS's "Dallas", "Knott's Landing", "Paradise" and "Guns of Paradise". Christopher received an Emmy nomination for Paradise's "Ghost Dance", in 1988.

Christopher's passion for all aspects of music and music making has continued to excite and interest his commercial and serious activities. His unusual blending of musical style and instrumentation and continuous respect for popular and serious musical culture has generated a personal catalog of over 500 works. Sacred music, opera, folk, gypsy, tango, classical, jazz to popular music - Christopher continues to enjoy arranging and composing music for a 21st century audience whose musical needs are as varied as his own.

PCS is excited to premiere Caliendo's latest work - the World Music Suite #2 - with Sheridan Stokes on flute.

Sheridan Stokes is a living legend to the flute community - he became the youngest contract musician in Hollywood at age 20. He is the flute soloist on Mission Impossible (TV and movie), Out of Africa, E.T., Kung Fu, Roots, Spitfire Grill, Apollo 13, and thousands of other movie and TV scores. Stokes received the MVP award for flute from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1981, 1982, and 1983. Premiers include Concerto for flute and orchestra by John Williams, Willow Willow for electric bass flute and percussion by Paul Chiihara, and On the Wings of the Wind for solo flute and orchestra by Harry Bulow.

Mendelssohn's Sinfonia No. XII for strings. His twelve youthful string symphonies provide a wonderful look at his developing artistry. No. XII is his last before his first full symphony as shows him at the cusp just about ready for his next steps.

1875 was a fruitful year for Antonin Dvorák's composing. This was the same year that he wrote his Symphony No. 5, String Quintet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1, the opera Vanda, and the Moravian Duets. These were happy times in his life. His marriage was young, and his first son had been born. For the first time in his life, he was starting to be recognized as a composer, and was able to live stably without fear of poverty. He received a generous stipend from a commission in Vienna, which allowed him to compose his Fifth Symphony and several chamber works as well as the Serenade.

Allegedly, Dvorák wrote the Serenade in just 12 days, from 3–14 May. The piece was premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by Adolf Cech and the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres. It was published in 1877 in the composer's piano duet arrangement by Emanuel Starý in Prague. The score was printed two years later by Bote and Bock, Berlin.