Department of Music

CHARLOTTESVILLE SYMPHONY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA ADDS PROKOFIEV’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3 TO PROGRAM

The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia continues its 49^th season on Saturday, March 16, 7:30pm, at Old Cabell Hall on the Grounds of the University of Virginia and Sunday, March 17, 3:30pm, at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center.    

The program, conducted by Music Director Benjamin Rous, opens with Wolfgang Amadè Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni.  The most famous of Mozart’s operas, Don Giovanni is set in Seville, Spain, and re-tells the story of Don Juan, the legendary unrepentant ladies’ man, with comedy and tragedy in equal measure.

Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, composed in 1921, remains one of the virtuosic showcase concertos in all symphonic literature and the best loved of Prokofiev’s five piano concertos.  The soloist is Alexander Suh, a third-year student double majoring in Music and Computer Science at the University Virginia and the winner of the UVA Music Department’s inaugural concerto competition.

Unlike the monumental Seventh and Eighth Symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich, his Symphony No. 9 is short, playful and full of humor.  It was expected to be an ode to Stalin’s regime, but Shostakovich took a subversive turn, composing instead a small-scale neoclassical work, reminiscent of Haydn’s symphonies. 

Major support has been provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, lead sponsor of the Charlottesville Symphony’s 2023-24 season.

In-depth program notes by Program Annotator Laurie Shulman are posted on the orchestra’s website, www.cvillesymphony.org, two weeks prior to each Masterworks concert.

Free parking is available in the UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street South on Saturday nights and at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoons.  The Charlottesville Free Trolley stops at McCormick Road near the UVA Amphitheater, in close proximity to Old Cabell Hall.  Both venues are wheelchair accessible.                                              

Single tickets are $10-$46 for adults and $10 for students.  UVA students may request one complimentary ticket in advance.  Tickets may be purchased at the University of Virginia Arts Box Office, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00pm, Tuesday through Friday in the lobby of the UVA Drama Building at 109 Culbreth Road, or online at www.artsboxoffice.virginia.edu.

All University of Virginia employees (faculty and staff of all UVA departments and professional schools) are entitled to a 20% discount on tickets to individual performances.  This offer does not apply to subscriptions, the December Family Holiday Concerts, Pops at the Paramount or previously purchased tickets.

REMAINING 2023-24 CONCERTS INFORMATION

ACADEMIC FESTIVAL
Saturday, April 20, 2024, 7:30pm, Old Cabell Hall, UVA Grounds (Tickets)
Sunday, April 21, 2024​, 3:30pm, Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center (Tickets)

Benjamin Rous, Conductor
JoVia Armstrong, Percussion
Nicole Mitchell, Flute
Free Bridge Quintet

LEONARD BERNSTEIN – Overture to West Side Story
JOHN D’EARTH – Concerto for Jazz Quintet and Orchestra
NICOLE MITCHELL – Flight for Freedom
MATTHEW BURTNER – Threnody
JOVIA ARMSTRONG – “Creation”, “Embryo”, “Birth”
RAVEL – Boléro (arranged by Benjamin Rous)

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All artists, programs and venues are subject to change.

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