MusicaNova Orchestra Resistance and Unity: Women Rise

Repetoire:

Reena Esmail, Zeher (for cello and strings)Rhonda Rider, cello

Victoria Yagling, Suite for Cello and StringsRhonda Rider, cello

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Warren Cohen, Concerto Grosso no. 1 for String Quartet and String Orchestra

With this concert of selected works for string orchestra, MusicaNova highlights women in classical music.

American composer Reena Esmail introduces elements of Indian classical music into many of her compositions, including Zeher (the Hindi word for poison), which she wrote during the course of a serious illness that made it difficult for her to swallow, speak, or, at times, breathe.

Victoria Yagling was a Soviet-era cellist and composer who faced the same challenges as Shostakovich in the struggle to balance Soviet orthodoxy and her own artistic voice. The regime throttled her career by refusing to allow her to travel and perform in capitalist countries.

Vaughan Williams’s famous Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis features two smaller orchestras playing against each other. Cohen repeats that approach in his Concerto Grosso, with a string quartet playing in opposition to the orchestra.