2023-2024 classical concert programs
CELEBRATIONS!
October 7, 7:30pm
Conductor: Chris Cicconi
Jennifer Higdon: Machine
Arturo Marquez: Danzon No. 2
John Williams: Escapades from Catch Me If You Can for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Music has always been a powerful medium to embody the idea of CELEBRATION! Our repertoire in this concert was written to convey just this. From the flourishing excitement and pulsing rhythms of Machine (Higdon); to the fantastic passion and style of Danzon No. 2 (Marquez); to the suspense and drive of Escapades (Williams); and the lush, beautiful harmonies of Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov); each composition, in it’s own and very unique as well as programmatic way, focus on the overarching and joyous idea of celebration.
Tales from the Woods
December 2, 2023, 7:30pm
Conductor: Jordan Randall Smith
Dmitri Shostakovich: Festive Overture, Op. 96
Jonathan Leshnoff: Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon
Florence Price: The Oak
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88
Join us for sensational music by Antonín Dvořák and Florence Price. Price’s The Oak and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 share a love of nature, traveling through thrilling highs and tragic lows. The trumpets open the concert with the attention-grabbing fanfares of Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and close with another fanfare in Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. The orchestra will also perform the evocative music of Maryland Composer Jonathan Leshnoff. Join us for a program the whole family will be sure to loveF!
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
February 3, 2024, 7:30pm
Conductor: Richard Scerbo
Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1
Carlos Simon: AMEN!
Serge Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
When Serge Koussevitzky gave the US premiere of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony with the Boston Symphony, he was quoted in Time magazine when referring to the work by saying, “It is yesterday, it is today, it is tomorrow.” His words still ring true for this ebullient work whose infectious rhythms and extroverted flare continue to captivate audiences. The first half of the concert features two works that also embody the past, present, and future: Richard Strauss’s virtuosic horn concerto pushed the limits and abilities of what players could do on the instrument when it was premiered in 1883, and Carlos Simon’s Amen! draws on gospel tunes he heard growing up in church, but woven into a dynamic three movement work showcasing moments of contemplation and exultation.
Confessions of the Soul
May 18, 2024, 7:30pm
Conductor: John Murton
Jennifer Higdon: blue cathedral
Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
Join us for a concert of three very different pieces that share a musical journey, from reflection to a celebration of life. Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral is a musical memorial to her younger brother, in which a duet is weaved in an imagined cathedral of crystal pillars and stained glass. Natalia Vilchis is the soloist in Edward Elgar’s elegiac Cello Concerto, written in the wake of the First World War. The concert ends with Sibelius’ Second Symphony – a piece he described as his “confession of the soul.” This intriguing exploration of the composer’s musical personality concludes with a triumphant theme filled with optimism.
