The Albany Symphony’s March Concert to Feature Vibrant and Dynamic Guest Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya who conducts around the world and is originally from Guilderland, NY
Program Includes the Breathtaking Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber Performed by Amaryn Olmeda, Symphony No. 7 by Antonín Dvořák and Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone
ALBANY, NY – The two-time GRAMMY award-winning Albany Symphony is thrilled to present a spectacular concert on March 8 at 7:30pm at Proctors in Schenectady. The concert will feature Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto performed by Amaryn Olmeda, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and will also include Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone.
The concert will be led by the dynamic and renowned conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, who is a fiercely committed advocate for Slavic masterpieces and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 17 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. Her transformative tenure as Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater (COT) earned consistent recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which named her Chicagoan of the Year and credited her with “raising the profile of COT immensely, her interpretations bracing and repertoire head-spinningly varied.” She was a refugee from Russia who came to Guilderland, NY where she found inspiration to conduct from her high school orchestra teacher, Jeffrey Herchenroder. Herchenroder was a double-bassist in the Albany Symphony for many years prior to his passing in February 2020.
"It's so meaningful to conduct this orchestra, in the community where I took my first steps onto the conducting podium," said Yankovskaya. "The Albany Symphony introduced me to the music of many living composers – an area of classical music that has become one of my specialties, along with Slavic repertoire. It feels especially fitting to lead Dvorak's 7th Symphony, as its third movement was the first piece of music I ever conducted, when I was a 17-year-old student at Guilderland High School – coincidentally, the same age as our fabulous young soloist Amaryn Olmeda. I'm so grateful to have received such an inspiring musical education as a young adult in this region, and I hope I can pay that forward for someone in the audience for these concerts."
“We are thrilled to welcome Lidiya Yankovskaya home,” said Emily Fritz-Endres, executive director. “The Albany Symphony musicians and educators could not be prouder of the recognition that Lidiya’s innovative, collaborative spirit has garnered worldwide. It’s clear she is on the cusp of reaching even greater heights as one of the most engaging conductors of our time. Each year, David Alan Miller cedes the podium for one subscription concert, enticing other visionary conductors to the Capital Region. This is part of David’s commitment to ensuring that Albany Symphony musicians and audiences experience unique interpretations from many conductors, including women and people of color. In true Albany Symphony esprit, this focus on mentorship ensures the representation of more voices on our stages, and we remain committed to uplifting diverse talent to shape the future of American orchestral music.”
In 1939, Samuel Barber was commissioned by Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Feis to write a violin concerto for Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music the same year Barber graduated. Barber went to Switzerland to write the piece, but World War II interrupted its completion. He eventually returned to the United States and worked on it in the Pocono Mountains. Barber presented parts of the violin concerto, and it was criticized as not having virtuoso character and sounding too simplistic. It went through a lot of criticism before it was performed privately in 1940 by the Curtis Institute
Orchestra and eventually by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1941. It is now an incredibly popular violin concerto performed regularly throughout the world.
The violinist who will perform Barber’s Violin Concerto is Amaryn Olmeda, winner of first prize and the audience choice award at the 24th Annual Sphinx Competition. She is a rising star sought after for her bold and expressive performances as a soloist and collaborator. Violinist.com says of Olmeda, “her commanding stage presence, infallible technique, and interpretive ability already rival that of international concert stage veterans.” She was born in Melbourne Australia in 2008 and currently studies at New England Conservatory with Miriam Fried. She previously studied with Ian Swensen at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Olmeda performs on a violin made by J.B. Vuillaume in 1864.
Symphony No. 7 by Antonín Dvořák is also on the program. The piece was written and performed in 1885 and was originally published as Symphony No. 2. Dvořák had heard and admired Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 and this prompted him to want to write a new symphony. One day, after his daily walk to a Prague railway station he said, "the first subject of my new symphony flashed in to my mind on the arrival of the festive train bringing our countrymen from Pest.” The Czechs were in fact coming to the National Theatre in Prague, where there was to be a musical evening to support the political struggles of the Czech nation. He resolved that his new symphony would reflect this struggle. In doing so the symphony would also reveal part of his personal struggle in reconciling his peaceful countryman's feelings with his intense patriotism and his wish to see the Czech nation flourish. Even though his Symphony No. 9 is performed so often, including by the Albany Symphony in November 2024 to sold-out halls, many specialists proclaim Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 to be his greatest.
Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone, an orchestral work commissioned in 2020 by the Chicago Symphony, is an exploration of two brief moments in the Orpheus myth – the moment that Eurydice dies, and the moment that Orpheus decides to follow his lover into the underworld. Constructed of two connected movements, Behold the Machine, O Death and We of Violence, We Endure, this work explores the baffling and surreal stretching of time in moments of trauma or agony. The movement titles come from Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus and this work uses small fragments of material from my 2019 ballet Orpheus Alive. Composer Missy Mazzoli is a GRAMMY-nominated composer whose work is being performed all over the world. She made history in 2018 when she became one of two women to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. That was the year she was also nominated for the GRAMMY for “Best Classical Composition.” Mazzoli is also an active keyboardist and pianist and attended the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Boston University.
The 2024-2025 season runs through the American Music Festival in June. Season subscriptions are available and offer flexibility, convenience, and price savings. Through the Nielsen Associates’ Student Access Program, students can purchase discount subscriptions and enjoy the full benefits of being a subscriber. To purchase a subscription or single tickets, visit albanysymphony.com or call the Box Office at 518-694-3300.
