Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra to Present THE PASSIONATE VIOLA at the Second Church
The performance will take place on April 6, 2025.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Mar. 05, 2025
Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, led by guest conductor Alyssa Wang, Assistant Conductor of the Boston Ballet, will take Pro Arte and the audience on a dramatic journey from darkness to light in a concert titled The Passionate Viola, Sunday April 6 at 3pm at the Second Church in Newton, MA.
The concert will open with Joseph Haydn's mercurial Symphony No. 95 in C Minor, whose frequent shifts between moods serious and cheerful are designed to keep listeners on their toes.
The performance continues with Jennifer Higdon's intense Viola Concerto, a kaleidoscopic exploration of all the voices in which that instrument can sing, featuring Pro Arte's principal violist Anne Black.
“When I came across Jennifer Higdon's Viola Concerto I was immediately struck by the lyricism, freshness, lively energy, and accessibility of this piece,” said Anne. “The work is carefully orchestrated for a chamber orchestra and features many chamber music-like pairings of orchestra principals with the solo viola throughout the concerto.
“I am thrilled to perform this wonderful piece with conductor Alyssa Wang and my long-time colleagues of Pro Arte,” she continued. “Higdon's piece is a strong addition to the viola repertoire, and as far as I know, this may be the first public performance of the work in the Boston area.”
The program concludes with Igor Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite, a reduction of his ballet of the same name. It is based on commedia dell'arte, for which he created sunny interpretations of 18th-century Italian music that brim with the composer's signature wit and charm.
Alyssa Wang is a passionate and versatile conductor, violinist, and composer. A recipient of the 2024 New Music USA Creator Fund, the 2023 Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award, and the 2022 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, Alyssa has enjoyed exploring diverse creative paths with a focus on audience inclusivity and engagement. She is the Co-Founder, Artistic Director, and Principal Conductor of the Boston Festival Orchestra, which presents an annual summer festival, chamber music series, and music education program. In 2021, she joined the Boston Ballet as Assistant Conductor and serves as Music Director for the annual Next Generation project with Boston Ballet School.
A multi-faceted artist fluent in many media, Anne Black enjoys a vibrant career in the performing and visual arts. In addition to Pro Arte, she is also principal violist for Cantata Singers and performs with many Boston-area organizations, including the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops, Emmanuel Music, and Masterworks Chorale. She is also a tenured violist of Handel & Haydn Society's period instrument orchestra. Anne has produced and edited several album projects with her husband, recording engineer Frank Cunningham, including albums for violinist Daniel Stepner and pianist Sally Pinkas, and violinist Masha Lankovsky and pianist Byron Schenkman. She also produced two albums for Guy Fishman, Principal Cello of the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra.
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