RPO Gives Cornell Composer’s Violin Concerto its World Premiere
April 22, 2022
At Rochester’s Kodak Hall 5/5 & 5/7 & Ithaca’s Bailey Hall 5/8
Rochester, NY – The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) presents The Blue Danube on Thursday May 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 7 at 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Music Director Andreas Delfs leads a program about beginnings and endings, featuring the World Premiere of acclaimed composer and recent Latin Grammy-winner Roberto Sierra’s Violin Concerto, a la memoria de una niña valiente, performed by Concertmaster Juliana Athayde (The Caroline W. Gannett & Cayla Ward Chair).
Sierra is currently the Old Dominion Foundation Professor of Music Emeritus at Cornell University, where Ithaca audiences can experience the same program on Sunday, May 8 at 3 p.m. in Bailey Hall. He and Maestro Delfs – whose family commissioned the work – are old friends.
“Concierto para Violín y Orquesta “A la memoria de una niña valiente” is my reaction to the premature departure of a beloved person that I knew since she was a very young girl,” explains the multiple award-winning composer. “There are moments in the work that reflect the tragic loss, however the piece is not a biographical statement, but rather a memorial and a musical reflection of the beautiful human being that she was.”
The concert opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s charming but rarely performed overture to The Fair Melusine (The Little Mermaid). Also on the program is one of the most recorded pieces of classical music, Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished,” which Maestro Delfs calls the composer’s “absolute best work.” Closing out each evening is the world’s most famous waltz, Johann Strauss, Jr.’s An der schönen blauen Donau (By the Beautiful Blue Danube), op. 314, conjuring up grand images that foreshadowed the fall of Vienna.
Tickets to the Bailey Hall performance start at $29 for the general public ($19 tickets for students) and are available at https://events.cornell.edu/event/rochester_philharmonic_orchestra. Tickets to the Kodak Hall performances start at $30 for adults and are available online anytime at rpo.org, by phone at 585-454-2100 (Monday-Friday, 10 am –5 pm), and in person 60 minutes prior to curtain at the Eastman Theatre Box Office (433 East Main St.). Tickets for children ages 3-17 start at $18 and are available by phone only.
ABOUT THE RPO: The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has been committed to enriching and inspiring our community through the art of music since its origins in 1922. The RPO presents approximately 150 concerts and broadcasts a year, serving up to 170,000 people through ticketed events, education and community engagement activities, and concerts in schools and community centers throughout the region. Music Director Andreas Delfs joins the ranks of former notable RPO music directors, including Erich Leinsdorf, David Zinman, Mark Elder, and Conductor Laureate Christopher Seaman. Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik, now in his 28th season, has earned a national reputation for excellence in pops programming during his tenure with the RPO. The RPO reaches more than 15,000 youth through its specific education programs.
