New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra

For its season finale, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra welcomes back conductor Alex Wen, who was newly appointed as Interim Artistic Director of the Jackson Heights Orchestra. The program will begin with Primal Message by Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama, who has earned praise both as a composer and for her performances as orchestral violin soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Born in 1976—the same year in which NASO was founded—Ngwenyama wrote the piece based on “imaginings” about what a “primal message” to beings from other planets would sound like. She wrote, “Opening off-world communication through transverse waves explores existential conveyance under a frayed veil of decorum through form, melody, and numbers.”

Next the concert will feature soloist Abram Korsunsky in a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. in G Major, Op. 58. Korsunsky has appeared as a solo and chamber musician in numerous concerts throughout the United States. Korsunsky was the winner of the 2014 Queens College Concerto Competition, and his recent performances include with the Queens College Symphony Orchestra and Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra. The piano concerto is a middle-period masterpiece that represents a turning point in the composer’s compositional style.

The program will conclude with Modest Mussorgsky’s enthralling Pictures at an Exhibition, always a crowd pleaser.