This captivating program offers a rare glimpse into two of today’s most accomplished living elder composers, one Russian and one Chinese. Sofia Gubaidulina’s music combines the spiritual and the dramatic in works filled with aural imagination and sonic experiments. Her enchanting Fairytale Poem is based on “The Tale of the Chalk,” about a piece of chalk that longs to escape its dreary existence and draw beautiful things. 

In his Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa GRAMMY- and Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) explores a 4000-year-old Taoist funeral tradition known as “ghost opera,” in which a shaman communicates with spirits from the past and future to connect nature and the human soul. Guest artist Wu Man, recognized as the world’s premier pipa virtuoso, is featured.

Tchaikovsky loved his Symphony No. 4 all his life, even when his feelings for his other compositions had begun to cool. This expressive work is filled with an emotional urgency that is both personal and super-charged, from its melancholic first movement to its vigorous finale.

From all three of these composers, you’ll feel the undercurrent of art speaking truth to power and navigating the world of creative expression in the face of challenging and changing political landscapes.