July 20, 2026

July 20, 2026
 
​Early in my career I was engaged by the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans to do a concert that included Prokofiev’s music from his ballet Romeo and Juliet. For that concert, their Music Director at the time, the wonderful Klauspeter Siebel, had assembled his own version of a suite from the ballet, cherry picking movements from the three published suites. This was a relatively new practice for the time (1980’s).
 
I kept Klauspeter’s suite, and returned to it many times over my career, sometimes making minor adjustment for purposes of duration, but keeping the essential shape intact.
 
For some reason that I didn’t fully understand, the publishers would not allow that this year. It was either a complete suite as published, or no R and J. So, I opted to Suite 2. The silver lining was taking a deep dive into some of the movements I have been neglecting for the past decades, just further proof that Prokofiev’s ballet is a deep well indeed.
 
Our concert opened with Tale of Fate of Rautavaara, conducted by our conducting fellow Michelle Bushkova. This work really grew on me over the week, and Michelle and the orchestra made a great case for it, very moving.
 
The CHQ School of Music has an annual SAI concerto competition, the winner of which returns the following summer to play a concerto with the orchestra. Violinist Tianyu Liu won the 2025 competition and returned this week to play Sibelius with us. He has developed into a very fine violinist, and it was a joy to dive into that work with him.
 
NEXT UP:
 
July 21, 2026
 
Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater
 
8:00 p.m.
 
THEOFANIDIS              Rainbow Body
BEETHOVEN                Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
 
#ChautauquaInstitution #MSFO #MusicSchoolFestivalOrchestra #MichelleBushkova #TianyLiu