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Christmas Magic returns to the Concert Hall this year with a very special program of holiday favorites and family fun! We’ll be joined by special guests to fill the hall with the sound of anticipation and joy. Make Christmas Magic part of your family holiday tradition this year!

We’re proud to present an evening of evocative impressions of Latin America with works from three composers you’ll recognize and one we’re proud to introduce this season. Venezuelan / American composer and cellist Paul Desenne, who passed away in 2023 at age 63, was a founding member of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra and resident composer for El Sistema. His 2013 Concerto for 2 Flutes will feature Robert Langevin, Principal Flute of the New York Philharmonic, and Marco Granados, one of the world’s leading flutists in Latin American music. The program opens with a lyrical, edgy work by Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla, followed by Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bach-inspired representations of Brazilian life. We’ll finish the evening with American icon Aaron Copland, who infused Mexican folk music into his rousing work.

Our March program celebrates the global travels and diverse influences of some of our favorite composers, creating a rich tapestry of sound that will be meaningful for both the orchestra players and our audience. Czech composer Antonín Dvořák spent three years in America (from 1892-1895) as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City, which is where he composed his great Cello Concerto. We’ll be joined by guest cellist Nicholas Canellakis, a multifaceted artist who appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Hungarian composer Béla Bartók was well known in America as a pianist, teacher, and ethnomusicologist, and his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is one of his most popular compositions. We’ll open the concert with a world premiere symphonic work from young Bahamian composer Stefan Thompson, a recent Boston Conservatory graduate, now studying for a PhD in Screen Scoring at New York University.

This concert’s composers all have different stories to tell, and our orchestra is grateful for the opportunity to perform these deep, meaningful, and introspective meditations. For example, Maurice Ravel’s moving work Kaddish includes a prayer for universal peace. Czech / Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann met his death in Auschwitz, but wrote in his journals, “By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon. Our endeavour with respect to arts was commensurate with our will to live.” His melodious Slavonic Rhapsody (1940), featuring guest soloist Kenneth Radnofsky on alto saxophone, is a testament to endurance in a turbulent time. And, in our closing work, Adolphus Hailstork’s recently completed Fourth Symphony, the composer asks us to consider the roots of American music and the evolution of civil rights.

Our season finale is deeply meaningful to all of us in the Vista Philharmonic. This is a performance about change, about respect, and about standing up for the things we believe in.