IRSC Public Media Community Calendar

From Shakespeare to Gene Kelly, our opening program spans centuries of theatrical storytelling. Film scores by Copland and Bernstein frame works by two pioneers of cinematic music: Korngold’s witty incidental music to Much Ado About Nothing and Rózsa’s dazzling, virtuoso Concerto for String Orchestra— music forged in Hollywood, but grounded in the symphonic tradition.

Shakespeare and James Agee provide the frame for three composers exploring the unstable border between innocence and unease— where memory blurs, beauty and darkness coexist, and imagination wanders freely. Anna Clyne draws on Macbeth as a springboard for her dramatic Sound and Fury; Barber turns to Agee to capture the nostalgia and quiet tristesse of a place long past; and Mendelssohn transforms A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with its volatile mix of ominous spirits, lighthearted lovers, and slapstick comedy, into music of shimmering enchantment.

From the intimate dialogue of Copland’s Quite City to the more public, more formal interplay of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante, the first half of this program celebrates connection and conversation. In the second half, Beethoven ignites those shared energies in his Seventh Symphony— a work of white-hot exuberance, rhythmic drive, and unstoppable momentum.

Across cultures and centuries, rhythm and ritual have shaped how music expresses identity, belief, and desire. Respighi’s Trittico Botticeliano refracts 15th century masterpieces through the lens of Italian Impressionism; Zhou Tian’s Flute Concerto stretches Eastern sensibility across a Western symphonic frame. Falla turns to the music of his native Andalusia to tell a story of possessive ghosts, deception, and the ultimate triumph of love.