Reno Philharmonic

Back by popular demand, Joyce Yang returns to ignite the 53rd Classix Season with Ravel’s beloved Piano Concerto. Yang’s “attention to detail and clarity is as impressive as her agility, balance, and velocity.” Hear the piece credited with starting Tchaikovsky’s musical career, “Mozartiana,” written for the 100th year anniversary of Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni.

This program brings three unique and superior artistic voices together in an intriguing juxtaposition of old and new. We begin with Harlin- a nod to dance music that will have you tapping your foot. Then we turn to one of Haydn’s most extraordinary and dramatic symphonies, the last of his London series. Finally, we close the concert with the return of another beloved performer, Chloë Hanslip, known for her mesmerizing and spellbinding performances. Hanslip will tackle what is notoriously known as one of the most difficult concertos ever written, and the only one Sibelius ever wrote.

This concert celebrates the rich heritage of folk melodies from the United States with works by two American composers: the incomparable Aaron Copland, and the first-ever black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, Florence Price. The Reno Phil’s principal clarinetist, Joshua Anderson, will bring personality, swing, and style to Copland’s jazzy concerto written for Benny Goodman. The program will also feature a world premiere by one of our community’s most eloquent and accomplished composers, Monica Houghton. In this piece, Houghton describes this new work as a “love letter to the Great Basin”.

American violin & piano virtuoso, Ray Ushikubo, is a rising prodigious talent, winning competitions and fellowships and already concertizing widely. As a recipient of one of The Davidson Institute’s top fellowship awards, he returns to our stage, having delivered a stunning piano concerto performance in Reno a few years ago. This time we welcome him performing on violin AND piano. The concert includes works by both Mendelssohn siblings, Felix and Fanny, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4, characterized by exhilarating forward momentum and musical depth.

The Reno Phil welcomes Grammy Award-winning soprano, Jessica Rivera, for Strauss’s sensually beautiful work, Four Last Songs. Possessing a voice praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “effortless precision and tonal luster,” she is known as one of the most creatively inspired vocal artists performing before the public today. Prokofiev’s genius burns with brooding intensity in the darkly passionate Fifth Symphony, inevitably known as a victory celebration. Its ending points to a radiant future, leaving its listener anxious, excited, and searching for more.

We conclude this season with a powerful grand finale exploring the marriage of art and music. Listeners will experience a brand-new symphony by Jimmy López Bellido, inspired by Nevada Museum of Art’s photographic collection, The Altered Landscape: Photographs of a Changing Environment. The composition explores the dynamic interconnectedness of humans and the Earth and envisions a hypothetical future where we exist in harmony with our natural environment. Then we explore an art museum in Mussorgsky's mind, as he imagines walking from one picture to the next, characterizing each painting through sound.