2025 Winter Series Concerts

Additional Notes on the Program

SYSO’s program notes are written by Maggie Molloy, a radio host and music journalist based in Seattle. Maggie hosts the Midday Show on Classical KING FM 98.1 and is also the curator and host of Second Inversion, a weekly radio show dedicated to contemporary and experimental music.

Music has a way of bringing people together, even as they come from different places, life stages, and experiences. In this Winter Series of SYSO concerts, we hear students connecting with the music and stories of composers from all walks of life—from the canyons of Bolivia to the port cities of Mexico, the villages of Austria, and the opera houses of Italy.

In these concerts, we’ll hear melodies found in pubs, parks, and community gathering spaces the world over; places where we find connection through music—and through listening to one another.

Prelude String
Symphonette
Debut
Junior
Youth

Prelude String Orchestra

Gustav Mahler (arr. Sandra Dackow) – Symphony No. 1 in D, Movement II

A country dance reimagined for the concert hall! This lively scherzo from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 transports us straight to a village pub, beer splashing out of the sides of our pint glasses as we hop, stomp, and dance along to the Austrian ländler, an early (and more rustic) precursor to the Viennese waltz. We’re light on our feet with the basses buzzing beneath us. Listen closely and you might even catch a yodel echoing across the nearby Alps!

It’s a scene that would have been very familiar to a young Mahler. As a kid, his family lived above his father’s tavern, where he drank in the rich folk traditions of Bohemia, Austria, Germany, and beyond. The joyous noise of friends and neighbors dancing downstairs was just one of many childhood memories that found their way into his deeply autobiographical First Symphony.

Jean Sibelius – Andante festivo

Strolling through the streets of Finland, there is one name you will see everywhere—on the front of monuments, schools, parks, bars, and concert halls. For years, this man’s face was even on the country’s currency!

In Finland, Jean Sibelius was more than just a composer, he was a national hero. His music empowered the people of Finland as they struggled to gain independence from Russia in the early 20^th century.

He composed this Andante festivo in the decades after Finnish independence was won. It was framed as a Finnish “greeting to the world,” the composer himself conducting the music in a live radio broadcast as part of the 1939 World’s Fair. His advice to the musicians that evening was to “play with more humanity.”

This music speaks not only to the warmth of the Finnish spirit, but also to the beauty of the Finnish landscapes that were so close to Sibelius’s heart. It’s music that stayed with him until the very end: the Andante festivo was performed at the composer’s own funeral in 1957, its poignant melodies soaring across the high ceilings of the Helsinki Cathedral—not a dry eye in the house.

Traditional Mexican Folk Song (arr. Jorge Vargas) – La Bruja (The Witch)

Nothing good ever happens after 2 a.m.! Still, it’s tough to resist the mischievous witch who stars in this Mexican folk song. Soaring through the sky at all hours of the night, she’ll sweep you off your feet and entice you with her wicked tricks.

La bruja (“The Witch”) is a standard of son jarocho—a sultry and playful genre of music from the port city of Veracruz, Mexico. With a smile and a wink, Jorge Vargas’s haunting arrangement echoes the earthy incantations of son jarocho and pays tribute to its portside charm, highlighting its fusion of Indigenous, Spanish, and African folk influences.

Symphonette Orchestra

Gustav Mahler (arr. Ralph Ford) – Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld (I Went This Morning Over the Field), from Songs of a Wayfarer

When you’re feeling upset or overwhelmed, sometimes it helps to take a walk—get a little fresh air and clear your head. Just take it from the heartsick traveler at the heart of Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer. He’s a young man who feels doomed to wander the world in solitude after suffering the rejection of his beloved.

In this scene from the larger song cycle, our wayfarer finds joy and beauty once again in the wonder of the natural world. The birds chirp merrily in his ears, the morning dew drips down each blade of grass, each flower offers its sweet greeting in the rising sun. For a moment, the world feels alive once again—that is, until his mind wanders back to his beloved.

Giuseppe Verdi (arr. Joseph Goodwin) – Sempre libera (Forever Free) from La Traviata

Money can’t buy you love—but it sure can buy you a life of luxury! Such is the predicament for the worldly courtesan at the heart of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata. She loves her freedom, her power, her life of pleasure, and lavish parties. But when she falls for a poor man with a heart of gold, she realizes that true love might be an even greater luxury than money can buy.

Still, she’s got to think it over first. In this scene from early in the opera, she laughs off the idea of true love and vows to live for pleasure—even as she hears the voice of her beloved just outside her window. What is it that will truly set her free: is it money? Or is it love?

Elliot Del Borgo – Aboriginal Rituals

Music is a ritual that can be found in every culture—across the ages and around the world. Whether it’s at an opera house, a cathedral, a jazz club, or the karaoke bar down the street, music allows us to connect and be present with one another. It’s a ritual that builds community, heals our spirits, and gives us space to express our emotions.

Elliot Del Borgo digs into the primordial power of music in Aboriginal Rituals, transporting us to the distant past through driving rhythms and dazzling colors. Grounded in earthy harmonies, this exciting finale celebrates the visceral power of music to bring people together.

Debut Symphony Orchestra

Jorge Morales – Vistas: Scenes Traveling Along Bolivia’s Death Road
SYSO-commissioned world premiere

Notes from Composer, Jorge Morales:

I wrote Vistas specially for the Seattle Youth Symphony Debut Orchestra. Vistas, which means “view” or “viewpoints” in Spanish, reflects my desire to create an upbeat piece where every instrument in the orchestra plays a unique, fun and vital role. I also wanted to offer listeners a fresh perspective on a country often overlooked and oversimplified in the media. Vistas was inspired by my journey through Bolivia’s once-dangerous Death Road. The road starts high in the Andes plateau and gradually descends into a lush, semitropical mountain range, where we visited a picturesque town. As we traveled, the road grew narrow with no guardrails, and we passed oncoming traffic near steep cliffs. After arriving, we climbed to a viewpoint and were rewarded with a breathtaking panorama of the green mountains and valleys. Throughout Vistas, you’ll hear a winding road melody, woodwind solos/duets, melodies in high and low registers, truck horns, festive music and a finally a majestic melody to represent the view from the town. All symbolizing the varied experiences of the journey. I am thrilled to share the premiere performance with you today!

Mikhail Glinka – Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla

Like any great fairy tale, true love conquers all in Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Ludmilla. When Ludmilla is abducted on her wedding night, three suitors set out in search of her, traveling high and low through magic castles, enchanted gardens, barren deserts, you name it! But only her one true love, the brave and noble knight Ruslan, manages to save her.

Ruslan’s heroic streak is on full display in this rollicking curtain-raiser to the opera. We burst right out of the gate on horseback, buoyed by bustling brass and scurrying strings. The excitement is palpable from the very outset, the heart-racing rhythms slowing down only for a tender daydream of Ruslan’s beloved Ludmilla before his attention returns to the adventure at hand.

Modest Mussorgsky (arr. Bruno Riebold) – “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Pictures at an Exhibition

A stroll through a sonic art museum—that’s what Modest Mussorgsky had in mind as he composed Pictures at an Exhibition. He envisioned each movement as a musical translation of a different artwork by his late friend, the Russian architect and painter Viktor Hartmann.

In this performance, we zoom in on the final artwork in the gallery: “The Great Gate of Kiev.” Hartmann’s original design features an arched entryway in the old Russian style, crowned with a golden two-headed eagle (a nod to the Russian coat of arms). A bell tower rises proudly into the sky along the side of the gate, its dome in the shape of a Slavic helmet. Though it was never built, Hartmann regarded the design as one of his best works.

Mussorgsky honors the work (and his friend) in grand style, weaving the melody of a Russian baptismal hymn into the music with solemn reverence. Shimmering church bells can be heard echoing from the gate’s tower. A grand and stately melody soars across the orchestra in this majestic finale, as we hear the composer bringing his friend’s unfinished vision to life.

Junior Symphony Orchestra

Yuankai Bao – “Ilan Children’s Ditty” from Symphony No. 2 “Sketches of Taiwan”

Taiwan is known for many things—bustling night markets, delicious street food, beautiful temples, and a rich tradition of folk music, to name just a few. These vibrant community spaces are at the heart of the Chinese composer Yuankai Bao’s Symphony No. 2, evocatively titled “Sketches of Taiwan.”

Across this set of musical snapshots, he captures the spirit of this special place—from a majestic sunrise on Jade Mountain to starry-eyed love songs and shimmering temple bells. In “Ilan Children’s Ditty,” he invites us to experience the joy and magic of Taiwan through a child’s eyes, with a happy melody in our hearts and a new adventure awaiting us around every corner.

Paul Chihara – The Tempest Suite

If you were stranded on a deserted island, how would you occupy your time? Finding food, building shelter, searching for help from the shoreline? For Prospero, the answer is simple. He passes the time by learning magic and plotting an elaborate revenge scheme against his brother Antonio, the one who staged the coup that landed him on the island in the first place.

So begins William Shakespeare’s stormy drama The Tempest: a tale of magic, betrayal, revenge, and, ultimately, forgiveness. When a ship carrying the treacherous Antonio passes by the island, Prospero conjures up a storm that shipwrecks the entire boat, tormenting its passengers before ultimately forgiving his brother and returning everyone safely home on calmer waters.

Paul Chihara captures the turbulent twists and turns in this suite of music from his ballet on the tale. Magical encounters, tender love songs, drunken shenanigans, epic storms—it’s all the drama of Shakespeare, without any of the words!

Otar Gordeli – Flute Concerto
Featuring 2023 Concerto Competition Winner Ethan Lee

The light and airy timbre of the flute makes it the perfect instrument to evoke birds singing in the trees, butterflies fluttering through the breeze, fairies giggling in the wind, or rivers flowing serenely downstream.

The spritely melodies of Otar Gordeli’s Flute Concerto call to mind all these images—giving the soloist an opportunity to soar, twirl, and play against the peaceful, bucolic backdrop of the orchestra. Let your imagination take wing!

Youth Symphony Orchestra

Antonín Dvořák – Cello Concerto in B minor, I. Allegro
Featuring 2023 Concerto Competition Winner James Lee

Legend has it that Antonín Dvořák was staring out across Niagara Falls when the idea first came to him: “My God,” he remarked, standing in the mist of its cascading waves, “What a symphony in B minor that will be!”

In the end, Dvořák poured the majesty of that moment not into a symphony, but into a very symphonic Cello Concerto in B minor. The music drew as much on his grand adventures in America as it did on his nostalgia for his beloved Bohemia, and his love for two Bohemians in particular. The first was an old friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, who had long begged Dvořák for a cello concerto. The second was his sister-in-law (and first love) Josefina Čermáková, whose failing health and subsequent death colored much of the concerto’s somber tone.

This first movement balances the melancholy folk melodies of home with the grandeur and excitement of the adventures at hand. The cello is lifted along the orchestra’s roaring waves, passion and drama swelling to the surface with each and every current.

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor

In today’s social media era, we all get a front row seat to our friends’ elaborate wedding proposals and relationship milestones. But the grand romantic gesture is nothing new, it’s just more widely publicized these days.

Gustav Mahler got in on the trend early. In 1902 he expressed his love for his future wife Alma on a grand stage: the concert stage! He wrote her a love letter of symphonic proportions—specifically, the heart-soaring Adagietto from his Symphony No. 5. Instead of writing his feelings for her down in a letter, he sent her the musical manuscript not long after their first meeting

The Adagietto forms the fourth movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, but the entire symphony’s trajectory from darkness to light can be heard as a reflection of this newfound love in his life. After all, Mahler first met Alma shortly after a terrifying brush with death: earlier that year he suffered a hemorrhage that put him within an hour of bleeding out completely. (Fortunately, love heals all wounds.)

The symphony unfolds in five movements, grouped in three parts. The first two movements form Part I: a funeral march followed by a frenzy of swirling storm winds, just a glimmer of sunlight visible through the clouds.

Part II lightens things up, with a lively scherzo that draws on both the folk dances of the Austrian countryside as well as the waltzing grandeur of the Viennese ballroom.

Part III opens with Mahler’s love letter to Alma, an airy daydream floating across luscious harp and string melodies, like a sigh of love breathing across the orchestra. This rapturous slow movement gives way to the revelry of the final movement, a kaleidoscope of color as we surrender our hearts to the transformative power of love.