New Bedford Symphony to open season with “Bach” to the concert hall

Featuring 23 string and percussion musicians plus Yaniv on piano!

Tickets: $10 per household, available on the Z website. Subscribers who purchased regular concert tickets for September 12 have been contacted about converting tickets to virtual concert access.

This concert will be recorded at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center and presented as a virtual performance on YouTube. A link for viewing access will be sent to all ticket purchasers by the morning of September 12. A digital program book will be available to view on our website prior to the concert.

CONCERT PROGRAM

• George Walker
• Lyric for Strings
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Concerto No. 1 in D Minor for piano and strings
• Astor Piazzolla
• “Winter” and “Spring” from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
• Rodion Shchedrin
• Excerpts from Carmen Suite

Featuring the string and percussion musicians of the orchestra, the program opens with a reflective piece by George Walker, the first African-American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. The piece, originally called Lament, was dedicated to the composer’s grandmother who had been a slave.

Music Director Yaniv Dinur takes both roles as pianist and conductor in Bach’s First Keyboard Concerto. Bach’s exhilarating piece draws inspiration from Vivaldi’s concertos and at the same time looks into the future, expanding the part of the piano solo.

NBSO concertmaster Jesse Holstein performs “Winter” and “Spring” from Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The great Argentine composer’s take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is full of intoxicating melodies and tango rhythms combined with quotations from the original Four Seasons.

Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite is a reimagining of some of the most popular and beautiful arias from Bizet’s opera Carmen. Written for the unusual combination of strings and percussion, Shchedrin gives Carmen a fresh look full of colors and wit.