Joshua Kováč with the WMU Symphony Orchestra

Name: Joshua Kováč with the WMU Symphony Orchestra
Start: 2024-10-06T15:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-10-06T16:30:00-04:00
Location: Miller Auditorium

Schedule

Sun Oct 06 2024 at 03:00 pm to 04:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Miller Auditorium | Kalamazoo, MI

Joshua Kováč, cello
Bruce Uchimura, conductor
Dimitri Shostakovich - Festive Overture in A Major, Op. 96 (6’)
Sergei Prokofiev - Sinfonia Concertante in E minor, Op. 125 (40’)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade, Op. 35 (44’)
2024 Stulberg Silver Medalist Joshua Kováč returns to Kalamazoo with the Western Michigan University Symphony, performing the precipice of solo cello repertoire, Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante.
What You’ll Experience:
-Bombastic tales of musical adversity.
-Works by Russian composers who challenged artistic oppression with their music.
-Joshua Kováč, cellist and Silver Medalist at the 2024 Stulberg Competition.
What’s Interesting About This Program:
-Shostakovich wrote the Festive Overture in a three-day sprint of inspiration after being approached last minute by a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. The piece was requested by the Soviet Union to celebrate the October Revolution. The delay in their request was caused by secretive political rumblings. Shostakovich cheekily mocks the bureaucracy in this piece by instructing the orchestra to perform at lightning speed to evoke a sarcastic and sometimes cartoonish excitement.
-Sinfonia Concertante was written for famous Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. During a performance of this piece in Moscow, Shostakovich was in attendance and noticed during the piece’s finale that the timpanist was a war veteran–with a missing leg and no crutch to hold him. Shostakovich spoke to Rostropovich after the concert, remarking:“...how that one-legged man thumped his drum!” Historians noted that Shosakovich’s later Cello Concerto No. 1 ends in a similar fashion… punctuated by a single timpanist.
-Soloist Joshua Kováč performed the Sinfonia Concertante at the Semifinal round of the 2024 Stulberg Competition, with his performance winning him the Silver Medal at the competition. The 2024 Competition was Joshua’s first year applying to the Stulberg Competition.