Mykola Lysenko  Overture to Taras Bulba     Mykola Lysenko was born in 1842 in Hrynky, Poltava Governorate, now Ukraine, and died in 1912 in Kyiv, Russian Empire. Taras Bulba remained unperformed at the composer’s death and was first heard in 1924 in Kharkiv. The overture is scored for 3 flutes and piccolo, 3 oboes… Read More

Juan Pablo Contreras  Mariachitlán    Juan Pablo Contreras (b. 1987, Guadalajara, Mexico) is a Latin GRAMMY®-nominated composer who combines Western classical and Mexican folk music in a single soundscape. His works have been performed by 40 major orchestras in the United States, Mexico, Austria, Slovakia, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, and Venezuela. He is the winner of… Read More

Sunday, November 12, 2023    Guest conductor Tito Muñoz last conducted the PSO in June 2022, filling in at the last minute for an ailing Eckart Preu at Seaside Pavilion in Old Orchard Beach. For tonight’s program, he has chosen three works with the flavor of the year’s seasons, above and below the equator. The… Read More

George Enescu Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major, Op. 11    George Enescu (known also as Georges Enesco) was born in 1881 in Liveni, Romania, and died in Paris in 1955. He composed this work in 1901, and led the first performance in Bucharest in 1903. The score calls for 3 flutes, piccolo, 3… Read More

Tuesday, October 12, 2023    This program could just as well be titled “National Fervor.” Musical Director Eckart Preu leads three works with immediately obvious national characteristics. Two are from countries that were part of larger empires when these pieces were written; only Romania was independent. Enescu summons a vast range of orchestral color to… Read More

George Gershwin  An American in Paris     George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1898 and died in Hollywood in 1937. He composed An American in Paris in 1928, and it was first performed later that year by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Walter Damrosch. The score calls for… Read More

Saturday, September 30, 2023  Sunday, October 1, 2023    PSO Music Director Eckart Preu is joined by the singers of Portland’s ChoralArt for a program of music that paints vivid pictures. Visual artists from the Maine College of Art and Design have created new work inspired by Mussorgsky’s great 1874 solo piano work Pictures at… Read More

Brian Nabors Pulse Brian Raphael Nabors was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1991. His piece Pulse was first performed by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero on September 9th, 2019 in Laura Turner Concert Hall at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, TN for the NSO 2019 Composer Lab Showcase. The score calls for 3… Read More

This program is a snapshot of the richness of London musical life in the years before the First World War. The British Empire, upon which the sun never set, was at its zenith, and its capital basked in its diversity and wealth. The country’s artists looked abroad for inspiration, but also, finally, searched England’s history… Read More

Max Bruch Kol Nidrei for violoncello and orchestra, Adagio on Hebrew Themes This work by the German composer Max Bruch (1838-1920) remains one of his most popular, along with his first violin concerto and his Scottish Fantasy. Three symphonies, two additional violin concertos, numerous choral and chamber works are largely unheard today, though curious listeners… Read More