The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, conducted by Music Director Benjamin Rous, opens its 49th season on Saturday, September 23, 7:30pm, at Old Cabell Hall on the Grounds of the University of Virginia and Sunday, September 24, 3:30pm, at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center. All Saturday night concerts now begin at 7:30pm.
Side by Side by Molly Joyce was commissioned by Carnegie Hall. With an impaired left hand resulting from a car accident, Joyce is a passionate composer and activist whose work focuses on disability as a creative resource.
Kelly Peral, the orchestra’s Principal Oboist and Lecturer in Oboe at the University of Virginia, is the soloist in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings. In addition to being a virtuosic showpiece, the concerto evokes scenes of the pastoral English countryside for which the composer was famous.
The second half of the program opens with Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor, dubbed the “Unfinished” symphony because Schubert completed only two movements of the usual four. Benjamin Rous comments, “Opening Night includes a piece that is on both my desert island list and my bucket list. I’ve never performed Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, but I’ve always wanted to – it’s so beautiful and so deep that I will treasure it for my whole life.”
Inspired by an old Russian legend, Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky tells of nocturnal revels and a witches’ sabbath on St. John’s Eve, a major folk holiday coinciding with the summer solstice.
The orchestra’s September concerts are underwritten in part by the Vesta Lee Gordon Fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. Kelly Peral’s appearance is made possible by the Angus Macaulay Visiting Artist Fund. Major support has also been provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.
In-depth program notes by Program Annotator Laurie Shulman are posted on the orchestra’s website, www.cvillesymphony.org, two weeks prior to each Masterworks concert.
Free parking is available in the UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street South on Saturday nights and at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoons. The Charlottesville Free Trolley stops at McCormick Road near the UVA Amphitheater, in close proximity to Old Cabell Hall. Both venues are wheelchair accessible.
Single tickets are $10-$46 for adults and $10 for students, and be purchased at the University of Virginia Arts Box Office, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00pm, Tuesday through Friday in the lobby of the UVA Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road, or online at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.
All University of Virginia employees (faculty and staff of all UVA departments and professional schools) are entitled to a 20% discount on tickets to individual performances. This offer does not apply to subscriptions, the December Family Holiday concerts, Pops at the Paramount, or previously purchased tickets.