The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, who joins conductor and Artistic Advisor Bramwell Tovey for a program of Still’s In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.2, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10.
TACO Classical Concert Series
Saturday, November 16• 8pm
The VETS, Providence
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
STILL: In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No.2
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No.10
Before the Concert 7:00pm
Pre-concert Talk with Francisco Noya
After the Concert
Q&A with Bramwell Tovey
Open Rehearsal
Friday, November 15 at 5:30pm
The VETS, Providence
Security at The VETS
Due to enhanced security, walk-through metal detectors are now used at all performances. Please be advised that all bags may be inspected at the discretion of VETS security and/or the police officer on site. Items confiscated will not be returned. Please be advised that firearms, weapons, backpacks, suitcases, briefcases, and laptops are not allowed in the building. Additionally, outside food and drinks are not permitted inside the venue. Please arrive 35-45 minutes early for entry into the building.
To RSVP email ljohnson-carvalho@riphil.org Deadline for reservations and cancellations is Wednesday, November 13!
About the Conductor
Bramwell Tovey
As Artistic Advisor and Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, Bramwell Tovey embarks on his first official full season leading the Orchestra. During the 2019-20 season, he will lead the Orchestra in 20 performances and nine concert programs. A Grammy and Juno award winning conductor and composer, Tovey is also the Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Calgary Opera. He is currently the Music Director Emeritus following his 18-year tenure as Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO), which concluded in summer 2018.
Soprano Julia Radosz is rapidly establishing herself with the works of Verdi, Mozart and the bel canto genre. In the 2016-2017 season, Ms. Radosz made two role debuts as Musetta, La bohème, with Wichita Grand Opera, Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni, with Opera Orlando, and premiered the roles of Olympia, A Certain Quiet, and Lydia Larkspur, The Rivals. Ms. Radosz is the winner of the Jenny Lind Competition, Connecticut Concert Opera Competition, Marcella Kochanska Sembrich Vocal Competition and Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation Competition.
In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy (1943) was composed on a commission from the League of Composers, in which Still was one of 16 composers who were asked to write a short piece (under five minutes) on some patriotic idea. The works were premiered by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Artur Rodziński in early 1944.
In November 1879, Tchaikovsky traveled to Paris, where his Fourth Symphony was scheduled for performance. It happened, at that juncture, that he was without some commission to complete. While still in St. Petersburg, he had been at first relieved not to have any work responsibility, but he soon became bored. To solve his problem, he performed a rare act: he began to compose something from self-motivation. It was to be his Second Piano Concerto.
Stalin died in the spring of 1953, and by July of that year Shostakovich was busy at work on his Tenth Symphony. Judging by the speed of its completion (in October), this large essay must have been pent up within the composer for a very long time. The symphony premiered in December 1953 to a broadly mixed reception. In fact, so controversial was the work that a three-day conference of the Soviet Composers’ Union met in Moscow the following March to debate its merits as “optimistic” Soviet music.
