October 2-3
SHOSTAKOVICH 5
Saturday | 10.3.26 | 8:00 PM
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street
The Chelsea Symphony kicks off its 21st season with Dmitri Shostakovich’s monumental Fifth Symphony, the artist’s searing response to life under Soviet autocracy. Friday’s concert includes Ernest Chausson’s Poème, a mesmerizing work inspired by Ivan Turgenev’s novella The Song of Triumphant Love. Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s sweeping Violin Concerto, performed on Saturday, recasts material from the composer’s lush Hollywood film scores. The program opens with the East Coast premiere of Puzzle Box, a dazzling work by new TCS Composition Fellow Nicholas Bentz.
Program
Puzzle Box
(East Coast premiere)
Poème, Op. 25
(Friday only)
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
(Saturday only)
Featured Artists
Nicholas Bentz (b. 1994 - Charleston, SC) is a composer, violinist, and multimedia artist whose work is drawn to remote fringes and recesses of experience. In his work he seeks to render intimately personal spaces imbued with an individual sense of storytelling and narrative. Nicholas's music has been performed by leading artists including International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Sandbox Percussion, and yMusic. His symphonic works have been played by Philadelphia Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Suzhou Symphony, and …
Joseph Morag, acclaimed by the New York Times for his "gorgeous tone," and "physically expressive cues," has been a prolific member of the New York City musical scene for nearly 30 years. Growing up, he served as concertmaster of the New York Youth Symphony, Columbia University Orchestra, and Monteux Festival Orchestra. He is now entering his 10th consecutive season as concertmaster of the Chelsea Symphony and is a section violinist in the Syracuse Orchestra, Second Ending Ensemble, and National Youth …
Conductor
Valentina Paolucci is a rising orchestral conductor and violinist currently based in New York City. She has recently graduated from the Juilliard School with a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting under a full scholarship, and was awarded the Robert Craft-Igor Stravinsky Conducting Award upon graduation. Valentina is currently a Conducting Fellow with The Chelsea Symphony, Conducting Fellow with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the NYO-USA Alumni Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
Her international conducting engagements have included …
Mark Seto leads a wide-ranging musical life as a conductor, scholar, teacher, and violinist. He is Artistic Director and Conductor of The Chelsea Symphony in New York City, and Associate Teaching Professor of Music at Brown University, where he directs the Brown University Orchestra and teaches courses in music history, theory, and conducting. Recent highlights include performances with violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and the Martha Graham Dance Company, and concerts with the Brown University Orchestra at Carnegie Hall …