Author and Beethoven biographer Jan Swafford will present an introduction to Beethoven for this summer's 250th celebration of his birth. Among many things, the lecture will explore the parallels between the Napoleonic Wars and their impact on Beethoven’s creations, and how it parallels with today's upheaval with COVID-19.
Music Director Alasdair Neale opens the season with a surprise twist. Assistant Concertmaster Juliana Athayde and guest artist Orion Weiss follow with Massenet’s famous Meditation from his opera Thaïs. Once a humble tune to cover a scene change, it has become one of classical music’s most captivating episodes. Also on the menu, noted gourmet and virtuoso William VerMeulen leads a quartet of horn players in excerpts from Bizet’s endlessly tuneful Carmen. And finally, the orchestra will raise the roof with the triumphant finale of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
