Perry, Scheherazade, and Sheng

 Emmy-award-winning, Grammy-nominated conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in an evening of firsts and favorites, with a boisterous twentieth-century classic, an exhilarating world premiere viola concerto, and one of the most popular orchestral works in the repertoire.

Curtis kicks off the program with trailblazing neoclassical composer Julia Perry’s dynamic 1952 work Study for Orchestra and Of Time and Love by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng. Co-commissioned with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra of China, this exciting new concerto for viola and orchestra highlights the virtuosity of internationally acclaimed violist Roberto Díaz (’84).

The final portion of the program is dedicated to Rimsky-Korsakov’s rapturous Scheherazade, an intoxicating symphonic suite based upon mystical stories of romance, intrigue, and swashbuckling adventure from The Arabian Nights.