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.

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Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Artistry Prevails

Groton Hill Music Center

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.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Still Holding On

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.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Remarkable Origins

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.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Music Without Boundaries

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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!

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra: Christmas Magic 2024

Beethoven’s “Ninth” is always a momentous event, so we’re thrilled to present two performances of this beloved piece. Known as “Ode to Joy” because of the familiar theme in the symphony’s fourth movement, it’s the first symphony to incorporate vocal soloists and chorus into what was previously a purely instrumental genre. We’re delighted to welcome the acclaimed Worcester Chorus of Music Worcester to our stage along with four outstanding soloists to bring this monumental yet whimsical composition to life. But first, our program opens with an important work by Margaret Bonds, noted as one of the first Black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States. Written in 1964 after the composer’s visit to Montgomery, Alabama, the Montgomery Variations fervently examines seminal events from the civil-rights movement.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Ode to Joy

Who could have known that the opening theme of Richard Strauss’ iconic 1896 tone poem would become one of today’s most recognizable sound bites? From the epic 1968 sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey to 2023’s Barbie, this work continues to thrill audiences around the world. We felt it was the perfect way to open our 50th season. If you haven’t heard it in the exquisite Concert Hall yet, you’re in for a treat. Our Opening Night performance will also feature a new listening experience for Vista Philharmonic fans, with Grammy-winning modern composer Mason Bates’ Sea-Blue Circuitry. This astounding accomplishment of contemporary classical is a shimmering, colorful workout for the orchestra. With virtuosity and passion at his fingertips, our guest artist – piano phenom Joshua Mhoon – transcends boundaries and captivates audiences worldwide. We know he will captivate us all in Rachmaninoff’s beloved concerto.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Opening Night 2024

With works by Coleridge-Taylor, Cohen, Long, Anderson, Raff, LeBow, and more, the audience will be treated to “mountain top” music as the ensemble is preparing a concert tour in Switzerland soon after their Groton Hill appearance. From Swiss composer Joachim Raff’s “Dance of the Dryads” from his alpine forest symphony to Leonard LeBow’s exciting “Ride the Matterhorn,” listeners will be transported to the idyllic countryside of the Swiss Alps. In addition, several American composers will be featured during this celebratory concert.

Metropolitan Flute Festival Orchestra: 2024

Director Nicole O’Toole leads this outstanding 21-member ensemble in classical and contemporary works arranged or written for flutes. Travel the world through music, from city centers to mountains and rivers, the Italian countryside, and a Japanese village. Featured composers include Joplin, Gershwin, Higdon, Coleman, Mascagni, and Offermans, as well as the world premiere of a newly commissioned piece by Alexa Letourneau.

Groton Hill Flute Orchestra: Season Finale

Maestro Bruce Hangen says: Ever since my early days, I’ve liked the combination of Beethoven and Stravinsky. They’re both very muscular and strong in their musical language. Beethoven is all about rhythm translated into melody, and Stravinsky is all about alternating rhythms and contrasting rhythms. Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ is the turning point into the romantic period, for both the composer and music in general. 

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – Season Finale

A special evening featuring world-renowned violinist, Midori!

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Midori

Tonight’s concert features three captivating masterworks that Maestro Bruce Hangen has enjoyed listening to and conducting for many years. He says: “Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 is my all time favorite piano concerto! His music is both classical and romantic — it sits between periods, so there’s a lot to dig into.” Versatile, internationally-known, and Grammy-nominated pianist John Novacek is our soloist.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra featuring pianist John Novacek

The Borromeo String Quartet were very popular at the chamber music series we presented for many years at The Kalliroscope Gallery here in Groton. Tonight they will join us for this concert’s centerpiece: Arnold Schoenberg’s Concerto in B-flat Major for String Quartet and Orchestra. Written in 1933, this delightfully inventive work is described as a ‘free transcription’ of G.F. Händel’s Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 7.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Borromeo String Quartet

Maestro Bruce Hangen has created a memorable program of sacred and secular Christmas music, all with tradition in mind. The full Orchestra will share the stage with chorus, vocal soloist, and narration to celebrate the season, concluding with a fun sing-along for all!

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra: Christmas Magic

Maestro Bruce Hangen says: There are two concerts in the season that I think have ideal pairings of composers. Ideal because of how the nature of each composer completes, contrasts, and complements the other. One of those pairings is Beethoven and Stravinsky in May; the other is tonight’s concert with Mahler and Mendelssohn. Musicians love to play Mahler, and I love to conduct it. His music is his personal, soulful expression.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra featuring violinist Alice Hallstrom

Our 49th Season opens as a journey through art as expression, with works from literature and painting as the composers’ inspirational backdrop. Our gifted guest vocalist, bass-baritone Christopher Humbert Jr.,  will be on hand for two selections with literary origins. Living composer Eleanor Alberga’s romantic work for baritone and string orchestra, The Soul’s Expression (2017), is set to texts from three very different 19th century writers: George Eliot, Emily Brontë, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And Maurice Ravel’s song cycle (his last composition) is based on the story of Cervantes’ epic novel Don Quixote. The concert opens with the familiar overture to Verdi’s opera “The Power of Destiny,” based on a Spanish drama, and closes with Modest Mussorgsky’s powerful masterpiece, Pictures at an Exhibition.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra featuring bass-baritone Christopher Humbert

Journey through a galaxy far, far away with a selection of music from the original Star Wars films and Rogue One!

Music of Star Wars

Two of today’s brightest classical stars make their NSO debuts! First, Michelle Cann performs Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement—a work she’s championed to great acclaim. Then, Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Joseph Young conducts Shakespeare’s tale of star-cross’d lovers in selections from Prokofiev’s masterful ballet score.

Joseph Young conducts Romeo and Juliet Michelle Cann plays Florence Price

Noseda brings our celebration to an epic close with George Walker’s exhilarating Sinfonia No. 3 and Beethoven’s Ninth, the symphony by which all others are measured. The cosmic drama of this masterwork—its grand, emotional melodies and tremendous final “Ode to Joy”—reminds us why Beethoven’s final symphony resounds as loudly today as it did two centuries ago.

Beethoven & American Masters: George Walker & Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Beethoven’s Second marks a new boldness in the composer’s work. It bristles with intensity, pushing harmonic boundaries with energy, comedy, and rebellious bravado. Noseda pairs this dramatic piece with two of Beethoven’s most famous overtures and George Walker’s Sinfonia No. 2, a mysterious and hopeful masterwork.

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