Our Principal Clarinetist Ben Lulich is playing the solo in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622, during Sundays at Soka, when Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair also performs Mozart’s Symphony No. 39—at Soka Performing Arts Center, Sunday, April 21, at 8 p.m.

We took a moment to interview him about the piece and his life as a musician.

Pacific Symphony: How long have you been a member of Pacific Symphony?

Benjamin Lulich: This is my sixth season as Principal Clarinetist of Pacific Symphony. It is a great joy to share the stage with so many wonderful, gifted colleagues, and being featured as a soloist on this concert is a great honor.

PS: Please tell us more about the piece you are the soloist for, Mozart’s Concerto in A Major.

BL: Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto was written at the very end of Mozart’s life, his final concerto. It is performed frequently, and has even been used in films (“Out of Africa” and “The King’s Speech” among others). Mozart wrote this concerto so well, that you don’t need to do anything fancy with it to communicate to the audience. It is simply heavenly music; it is a joy to play it and a joy to listen to it.

PS: How did you come to choose a career as a musician?

BL: Choosing a life in music was not a difficult choice for me. I started playing clarinet when I was 11 years old, and as I learned the instrument, I enjoyed music more and more. By the time in was in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to be a musician, to perform in a symphony orchestra. All the hours practicing, all the music history and theory classes, were part of the formula to reach that goal. The work was hard, but the choice was easy.

PS: You’ve played for recordings and film scores such as “Water for Elephants” and “The Tourist,” will you please tell us more about that experience? Has there ever been an instance where you’ve stumbled across a recording you’ve made and if so, how did you react?

BL: I enjoy performing for film scores and record albums. It is enlightening to see some of the “behind-the-scenes” process that takes place before a film is presented to the audience. There was one time I was in Barnes and Noble and the music that was being played sounded familiar. I got my iPhone out, and used the app Shazam to see what the music was. It turned out to be a song from a Barbra Streisand album I had played!

PS: Is there any advice you can give to young musicians hoping to continue with a future in music?

BL: Work hard, learn everything you can about music, always be ready to play your best.

Setting up “Tosca” - with Pacific Symphony Rome CAN be built in a day!

Breaking down a pops concert and building an opera set, Pacific Symphony’s stage crew worked through the night to set up the 90-ft screen and build the stage so that projection and lighting could rehearse at 6 a.m. the following morning. In the video, you’ll notice a number of lighting cues as well as each projector getting its rough alignment and test images. Pacific Chorale then enters to work with Music Director Carl St.Clair before the orchestra arrives. http://www.PacificSymphony.org

Pacific Symphony’s production of Puccini’s grand opera, “Tosca,” taking place Feb. 21, 23 & 26, 2013 at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. Read the reviews: Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times.

Music Director Carl St.Clair introduces the music of Puccini’s “Tosca,” a unique semi-staged production by Pacific Symphony, taking place February 21, 23 & 26 in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. For more information.

Even if you’ve never had the thrill of seeing it in live performance before tonight, you already know much about Tosca. Its principal characters have become paradigms of romance. Floria Tosca is the charismatic diva, beautiful but vulnerable, victim of her own jealousy. Her lover, Mario Cavaradossi, is the hunky artist, virile yet sensitive. Their antagonist is one of the greatest of all stage villains — Baron Scarpia, the corrupt, aristocratic police chief who ruthlessly wields power for his own gratification.

All the essentials of great melodrama are here: sex, violence and political intrigue. Tosca is set in Rome in 1800, with Europe in turmoil and Italy longing for national unification. The action takes place in June, on the day of Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Marengo. Against this tumultuous background, the opera juxtaposes a romantic triangle against the struggle between entrenched political power and idealistic rebel spirits.

Which is more important, ideology or love? When is violence justified? These questions are embedded in a whirlwind of a libretto; the drama spans about 18 hours in three breathless acts. By the end of Act III, all four will be dead. Sung in Italian with English supertitles, “Tosca” takes place Thursday, Feb. 21; Saturday, Feb. 23; and Tuesday Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. For information, visit www.PacificSymphony.org.