About the Season

Our 59th season is guided by a powerful theme: music as a bridge—between peoples, times, cultures, and histories. We begin with Dances of Galánta, a dazzling work by the great Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. Rooted in the folk traditions of his childhood town, Galánta—historically a crossroads between Eastern and Western Europe — this piece is a powerful blend of Hungarian Romani musical traditions and Western classical form. It is, in essence, a celebration of cultural synthesis.

The theme of unity continues in our October and November programs, as we program music from two countries currently in conflict — Ukraine and Russia. In October, we welcome the brilliant Ukrainian pianist Anna Shelest for a performance of the Ukrainian born composer Sergei Bortkiewicz’s stirring Piano Concerto, a work filled with lyricism, passion, and hope. In November, we present the monumental Symphony No. 5 by Sergei Prokofiev, a Russian composer who, even amid the turbulence of the time he composed it in 1944, envisioned this symphony as a celebration of the strength of the human spirit.

Time itself becomes a bridge in our final masterwork of the season: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s transcendent Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Scored for two orchestras—one representing the present day and the other evoking the music of the Renaissance—the piece creates a dialogue across centuries. The result is a tapestry of breathtaking beauty and spiritual depth.

This season, our music will not merely accompany our lives—it will live at the very center of them. Through the fusion of timbres, the shared pulse of rhythm, and the warmth of harmony, we will discover that what unites us—artistically and as human beings—is far more powerful than what divides us. In every performance, we will celebrate our common ground—and the timeless, boundless language of music that brings us together.

– Elliot Moore, Music Director