World’s Away

We kick off our Worlds Away season with music from across the globe from the lands of Europe and Russia. Our season begins with Brahms’ lush and gorgeous Symphony No. 3, a favorite in the orchestral repertoire and a masterpiece of form and beauty. We then feature the rising super-star Ching-Yun Hu on one of the most romantic works in the symphonic literature, Rachmaninoff’s yearning and passionate Piano Concert No. 2. Don’t miss this thrilling start to our year as we embark on new worlds of music together.

Brahms — Symphony No. 3
Rachmaninoff — Piano Concerto No. 2
featuring Ching-Yun Hu, Piano

This concert of Latin music will be an absolutely unforgettable evening of exotic melodies and thrilling beats. The Topeka Symphony is thrilled to welcome to its stage Douglas Niedt for Joaquin Rodrigo’s romantic and virtuosic guitar concerto. We celebrate the music of South America with Ginastera’s haunting and charming Variaciones Concertantes and round out the evening with seductive tangos and fascinating rhythms. It’ll be a musical adventure you won’t want to miss.

Revueltas — Ocho por radio (Eight on the Radio)
Ginastera — Variaciones Concertantes
Rodrigo — Concierto de Aranjuez
Featuring Douglas Niedt, guitarist

Frohliche Weihnachten! Joyeux Noel! Feliz Navidad! Celebrate Christmas around the world with musical favorites from all around the globe. The Kansas Youth Chorale will join us onstage to share Christmas stories and traditions, and we’ll conclude with an audience sing-a-long that will put you in to the holiday spirit.

Custer — It’s Christmastime
Traditional — Three Spanish Carols
Reed — Russian Christmas Music
Christensen — German Carol Festival
Henderson/Custer — A Canadian Brass Christmas
Berlin — White Christmas
Holcombe — Festive Sounds of Hanukah
Barber — Chorale Prelude on Silent Night
Nelson — Frosty the Snowman
Rutter — Shepherds Pipe Carol
Finnegan — Carol Sing-a-long

Travel to exotic worlds with the Topeka Symphony’s night of music from the Far East, including the always-popular Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor and Kansas City Conservatory composer Chen Yi’s charming and playful Chinese Folk Dance Suite for solo violin, which incorporates Chinese folk music into a virtuosic violin concerto. Finally, we go to Arabia with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, one of the most-often requested works for symphonies and a thrilling tour de force of Eastern melodies.

Borodin — Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Chen Yi — Chinese Folk Dance Suite
Featuring Terrie Baune, Violin
Rimsky-Korsakov — Scheherazade

This Valentine’s Day, let the Topeka Symphony take you to the worlds of the movies. We will play the sweeping, majestic scores from the silver screen, including beloved classics like Robin Hood and Lawrence of Arabia, as well as modern epics such as the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the world of legendary Hollywood for an evening of passionate, powerful movie music.

Shore — Lord of the Rings
Jarre — Lawrence of Arabia
Korngold — Robin Hood
Gold — Exodus
Zimmer — Pirates of the Caribbean

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the tornado which tore through Topeka. We remember the storm at this evening’s concert of the World in Storm. We will play Benjamin Britten’s stormy and dramatic Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes and offer perhaps the most famous of all storm music, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral. The Pastoral features a musical thunderstorm, including the calm before the storm, the raging storm itself, and the quiet afterwards, and will provide us an opportunity to reflect on the storm of 1966 and the years following as Topekans rebuilt. This will be a moving and powerful evening for all.

Beethoven — Symphony No. 6 — Pastoral
Glazunov — Concerto for Alto Saxophone in Eb Major
Featuring Youth Talent Competition Winner: Jordan Savage, saxophone
Britten — Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Our season will conclude with Verdi’s Requiem, a magnificent collaboration for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. We will amass over 100 singers onstage for this monumental finale to our year.

Verdi — Messa da Requiem
With the Washburn University Choir and the Topeka Festival Singer