Conductor

Gil Shaham’s virtuosity, warmth, and audience connection make him a favorite guest in Nashville, and to hear him perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is a rare opportunity. Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony uses the sheer force of the orchestra, fortified by extra winds, brass, and percussion, including cowbells plus a giant wind machine that depicts a huge storm.

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Beethoven Violin Concerto

Shermerhorn Symphony Center

Though the venerable composer Gustav Mahler completed only sketches of his Symphony No. 10 before his death in 1911, composers and musicologists spent much of the 20th century reconstructing it and filling in the gaps. Giancarlo Guerrero enlightens us with a fascinating exploration of this process before conducting Mahler’s final opus, considered by many to have been his greatest symphonic work.

Mahler’s Monumental Opus

Big and teaming with life, our season finale reaches for peaks. The fandango, a popular Spanish dance style, finds new life in Márquez’s lively violin concerto, which, from its inception, has been tied to one of the world’s most esteemed violinists, Anne Akiko Meyers. Aaron Copland’s final and monumental Symphony No. 3, which he began writing in a Mexican village in the 1930s, incorporates his famous Fanfare for the Common Man—and Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico reflects on the speed at which our lives move.

Anne Akiko Meyers Plays “Fandango”

Salt Palace Convention Center

We end our season with Orff’s Carmina burana, in all its magnificent, carnal beauty. Giancarlo Guerrero programmed it — in its original form — to showcase the powerful forces of the Nashville Symphony and Chorus. On the first half of the program, our soloists in the Orff treat us to Alban Berg’s Seven Early Songs and the autobiographical Songs of the Wayfarer of Mahler, who compared his own life to “a traveling journeyman…wandering on in solitude.”

Carmina Burana

Giancarlo Guerrero explores the range of emotions of art borne from grief. After visiting a friend’s posthumous art exhibit, Mussorgsky exclaimed “Ideas, melodies, come to me of their own accord.” He penned Pictures at an Exhibition with a feverish intensity, and the result is a work that showcases the virtuosity found within the orchestra. Sasha Cooke joins us for One Sweet Morning, John Corigliano’s achingly beautiful song cycle written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Shostakovich's glorious Fifth Symphony, a piece packed with passion and thrills—and more than a little sarcasm. Written under threat by the tyrant Joseph Stalin, the Fifth Symphony is as satisfying as it is subversive. The Grant Park Orchestra plays this orchestral powerhouse alongside American composer Joan Tower's tribute to the struggle for women's rights, 1920/2019.

Shostakovich Symphony No. 5

Millennium Park

Guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero brings two stunning masterworks to the Grant Park Orchestra: Beethoven's monumental Emperor Concerto with soloist Stewart Goodyear and Maurice Duruflé's soul-stirring Requiem featuring the renowned Grant Park Chorus. Adding to the evening's gravitas, the concert opens with a world-premiere composition by Chicago composer Jim Stephenson.

Beethoven Emperor Concerto

Take a musical tour of Rome with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Two of Respighi’s epic showpieces bring rushing fountains, towering pines, mysterious catacombs, and triumphant Roman legions to Music Hall. Richard Strauss’ final work, four hauntingly beautiful last songs, sing of acceptance, transformation, and fruition at the end of one’s long journey.

Giancarlo Guerrero

Conductor

Events

2 - 4 May, 2024

Beethoven Violin Concerto · Nashville Symphony

16 - 18 May, 2024

Mahler’s Monumental Opus · Nashville Symphony

24 - 25 May, 2024

Anne Akiko Meyers Plays “Fandango” · Utah Symphony

May 30 - Jun 2, 2024

Carmina Burana · Nashville Symphony

5 - 7 Jun, 2024

Pictures at an Exhibition · Nashville Symphony

About

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