Kenneth Kiesler, conductor
Xiaoya Liu, piano (Winner, 2019 SMTD Concerto Competition)

Pre-concert lecture at 7:15 PM in the lower lobby.

The University Symphony Orchestra (USO), conducted by its music director Kenneth Kiesler, opens its season with an exciting program of masterworks by French and Russian composers. Xiaoya Liu, a winner of the 2019 SMTD Concerto Competition, joins the USO to perform one of the most virtuosic and justly popular piano concertos of the 20th Century, the Prokofiev Third. After Mussorgsky breathed musical life into the work of artist Victor Hartmann with his set of piano pieces called Pictures at an Exhibition, other composers transformed it into a piece for symphony orchestra. The task stirred the imagination and creativity of perhaps the greatest orchestrator of the era–or any era–Maurice Ravel. The result, with its stunning palette of colors, demanding solo passages, and sheer sonic opulence, has become one of the most widely performed and beloved pieces of the symphonic repertoire.

PROGRAM-
Berlioz- Roman Carnival Overture
Prokofiev- Piano Concerto No. 3
Mussorgsky/Ravel- Pictures at an Exhibition