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Curtis Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä, Conductor & Jonathan Biss, Piano

Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, February 06, 2020
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Duke Performances offers a rare orchestra concert when the Curtis Symphony Orchestra comes to Durham, conducted by Osmo Vänskä and featuring Jonathan Biss on piano. The Curtis Symphony Orchestra is composed of about 100 students from Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music - one of the most selective schools in the world - and regularly features world-class conductors to lead the orchestra in concert. The captivating Vänskä, musical director of the Minnesota Orchestra, guides the young musicians through three works.

Curtis has commissioned young alumna Gabriella Smith, a "high-voltage and wildly imaginative" composer (The Philadelphia Inquirer), to compose a new work for the ensemble. Jonathan Biss, another Curtis alumnus and current faculty member, joins the orchestra for Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto, an epic struggle between the soloist and orchestra. Sibelius' austere second symphony concludes the evening, a work of which Vänskä has proved himself a formidable interpreter.

Program
Gabriella Smith: New Work

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor")

Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 43

Contact: King Kenney