TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TSO PERFORMS

Season of Youth and Diversity

Music Director José Luis Gomez leads an Opening Night program with violinist Lara St. John playing Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The concert starts with the Festive Overture by the dean of African-American composers, William Grant Still, and concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Gomez says, “Opening Night is a special occasion for celebration after this enforced absence, an evening that will be pure joy, so I’ve chosen one of the most glorious symphonies to crown this evening together with our audience.” Maestro Gomez has programmed music written by women composers Gabriela Lena Frank, Florence Price (the first female African-American composer of classical music) and Tucson native Claire Thai, an alumna of TSO’s Young Composers Project who will perform the world premiere of her harp concerto. Audiences will hear the music of several composers of African descent, including Mozart contemporary Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Duke Ellington, Fela Sowande and Ulysses Kay, who was born in Tucson and studied at the University of Arizona. Popular programming includes a screening of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, with every note of John Williams’ score played by the orchestra. TSO will also perform music of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Bach, Berlioz and Mendelssohn. Guest artists include cellist Amit Peled, bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann, Metropolitan Opera star Nicole Cabell, violinist Paul Huang, TSO concertmaster Lauren Roth and Joyce Yang in the TSO-co-commissioned Piano Concerto by Jonathan Leshnoff. For more information, visit tucsonsymphony.org or call (520) 882-8585.