Music

HK Gruber makes his anticipated return to New World Symphony in a triple threat performance as conductor, composer and singer. Travel back to the roaring ‘20s in Kurt Weill’s jazzy “Berlin in the Light” and a suite from his famous political satire The Threepenny Opera. Be the first on U.S. soil to hear Weill’s suite from Magic Night and Gruber’s own Northwind Pictures, a symphonic poem that pits nature against humanity using wind machines and music boxes. The magic of towering redwoods and shimmering light was the inspiration for Julia Adolphe’s ethereal Underneath the Sheen, in which she explores a lost home.

The NWS Percussion Fellows are ready to rock out on everything from drums, whistles, harmonicas to even trash. Composer Nathaniel Stookey scavenged a city dump to create his symphony of garbage, Junkestra. Stookey joins the Fellows with instruments he created from bike wheels, bird cages and other recycled material. György Ligeti’s song cycle pairs random Hungarian words and nonsense text with slide whistles and harmonicas. Ligeti wrote the work for Hungarian mezzo-soprano Katalin Károlyi, who also joins the Fellows in this performance. Surrounded by a battery of friends, the timpani takes center spotlight in Akira Nishimura’s Concerto, while Andy Akiho channels the rhythms of the city in to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem, originally written for the Bang on a Can collective.

NWS Conducting alumnus Joshua Gersen returns to bring one of the most alluring masterworks to the New World Center. Arabian Nights’ famed storyteller Scheherazade spins fables to survive. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov pays homage to the princess in this evocative and exotic symphonic page-turner—a treasure trove of imaginative scenes, like Sinbad on the high seas, with mesmerizing solo features.

The harpsichord may conjure images of men in wigs and ornate drawing rooms of times past, but Mahan Esfahani has made it his life’s mission to rehabilitate the instrument, bringing a rock star quality to both the keyboard and the music. Esfahani makes his NWS debut in this chamber music concert, which begins with a quartet by harpsichord-enthusiast C.P.E. Bach. In Oophaa, Iannis Xenakis brings the instrument into the future by amplifying and pairing it with two percussionists, who jam on flowerpots. Critics called Henryk Górecki’s whirlwind Concerto a veritable volcano and a spectacular plaything. Considered the Father of the String Quartet, Joseph Haydn broods in D minor. A suite of choral works by Heinrich Schütz is arranged for brass by NWS’s own Michael Linville.

NWS Fellows offer an electrifying evening in this season’s final performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center. Cristian Măcelaru, a University of Miami Frost School of Music graduate and new Chief Conductor of Cologne’s WDR Symphony Orchestra, commands the podium in Richard Strauss’ Don Juan. Brimming with passion, this heroic tone poem reframes the famed heartbreaker’s pursuits. Performing together for over four decades, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio combines three acclaimed solo artists into one dynamite performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. The thrilling frenzy of George Enescu’s virtuosic First Romanian Rhapsody is grounded in the folk and gypsy traditions of his homeland, while J.S. Bach’s celebrated Ricercar undergoes an inventive reimagining in Anton Webern’s arrangement for chamber orchestra.

Hailed as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American lyric tenor Nicholas Phan joins NWS Fellows for intimate chamber music by French masters. Using stirring pastoral themes, Camille Saint-Saëns and Franz Schubert pair voice one-on-one with violin and horn for sublime storytelling. Francis Poulenc channels the absurd in his Cocardes, before Jake Heggie’s Friendly Persuasions honors four transformative friendships in Poulenc’s life. When just a teenager, boy genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whipped up this delightful String Quartet while living in Milan. Maurice Ravel packs his signature color painting in this dreamy miniature harp concerto.

From the glittering waters of the Nile to the majestic Golden Gate of Kiev, NWS presents the grand and exotic in this exclusive evening at the Adrienne Arsht Center. One of the world’s premier pianists, Jean-Yves Thibaudet radiates brilliance in Camille Saint-Saëns’ evocative and alluring Egyptian Concerto—a work never before performed by the orchestra. Witnessing a live performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is an unforgettable experience culminating in one of the most extraordinary finales of all time. Leading the Fellows from its Old Castle to haunting caverns is Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena. NWS Conducting Fellow Chad Goodman will begin the evening with Hector Berlioz’ Tuscan treasure of an Overture.

Fellows bring the best of South Beach—its climate and beaches—to the New World Center with musical odes to nature. Local composer and FIU professor Orlando Jacinto García creates haunting, transient motifs for solo clarinet and strings. Timo Andres’ Tides and Currents returns to NWS after it was first premiered by Fellows and the composer in 2016. Evening music is turned on its head in Oskar Böhme’s quintet for trumpets and trombones and Charles Koechlin infuses a childlike charm into his Primavera. Johannes Brahms added an extra viola to the traditional string quartet, giving his Second Quintet extra richness throughout.

Today’s leading interpreter of contemporary music, Jeffrey Milarsky returns to NWS to lead Fellows and audience on a spiritual journey. Known for its interpretations of Steve Reich’s music, Synergy Vocals recite Hebrew psalms in this chamber orchestra version of his powerful Tehillim. American music icon John Adams married science, art, morality and humanity in his award-winning opera Doctor Atomic. The inner chaos and conflict of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who developed the atomic bomb, comes to life in this symphonic reworking which includes the opera’s “panic” and “military” music, culminating with an orchestral setting of Oppenheimer’s “Batter My Heart” aria. Prayer Bells starts at a whisper, but before long Augusta Read Thomas’ score has the orchestra tolling at a full clangor.

NWS Fellows celebrate visionary composers who both broke and honored traditions in creating their art. NWS’s own MTT hints at Italian operatic styles in the “high-flying flute pyrotechnics” (South Florida Sun Sentinel) of his Notturno, performed by Seattle Symphony’s Demarre McGill. Lured by the exotic sounds of Indonesian gamelans, Lou Harrison fused East and West in his Solstice ballet, and conjured a lilting trance in his Suite for Cello and Harp. A solo flute takes the spotlight in Harrison’s Concerto before imitating birdsong in Oliver Messiaen’s competition showpiece. Ludwig van Beethoven emerges from Mozart’s shadow to establish his musical voice in his Quintet for piano and winds.