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 Tchaikovsky’s explosive Symphony No. 4, often considered one of the Russian Romantic composer’s greatest orchestral works. Written in the aftermath of a short-lived, catastrophic marriage that nearly destroyed his creative core, this powerful piece depicts an epic battle between unbridled joy and fate, an ominous, inescapable force that threatens the fragile beauty of life itself. Over four intensely dramatic movements, the audience is drawn into Tchaikovsky’s turbulent mind as he grapples with the torment of his inner demons and triumphs in a finale of musical fireworks, proclaiming that we all should “rejoice in the happiness of others.”