Fast-rising star conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, music director of the Chicago Opera Theater and founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project, will lead the Rice University Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra in a Feb. 2 performance with works exploring different shades of the human experience.
The concert, titled “Explorations of Humanity,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Alice Pratt Brown Hall’s Stude Concert Hall on the Rice campus.
“I love working with young orchestras — at this point in their artistic lives, the world is full of musical possibilities,” Yankovskaya said. “The creativity, dedication and fierceness of young artists can create performances of immense impact for both performers and audiences.”
The performance will include Jessie Montgomery’s “Hymn for Everyone;” Elgar’s “Cello Concerto,” featuring 2023 Shepherd School of Music Concerto Competition winner Maximus Gurath, an undergraduate student of Brinton Averil Smith; and Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5.”
“This program reminds us all that music is always breathing, living and moving forward with us,” Yankovskaya said. “As a student, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking of classical music as something stuck in the past, but music — especially live music — is anything but irrelevant.
“It’s so important to perform music that speaks of and for our time, as Jessie Montgomery’s music does. I’m also looking forward to working on Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony No. 5’ with these musicians. His music has always felt like a part of me, as I was born in St. Petersburg and my family lived through the history he so poignantly reflects in his work. And it will be a great joy to support cellist Maximus Gurath in a major solo performance of the Elgar ‘Cello Concerto.’ The energy and excitement brought by someone at the start of their career, supported by their peers, is always electrifying.”
Pay-what-you-wish tickets are required for entry, ranging from free to $40, and are available at https://my.music.rice.edu/66 .
Later that weekend, the Shepherd School advanced opera studies students will present the annual opera scenes program, “Deconstructing Mozart: Scenes from Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro,” led by Music Director Gary Wedow and Director of Opera Studies Joshua Winograde. The performance will take place Feb. 4 at 2 p.m. in Brockman Hall for Opera’s Morrison Theater.
The performance will be sung in Italian with English surtitles and will last approximately one hour and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are required for entry, ranging from free to $30, and are available at https://my.music.rice.edu/70/71.