The Greenwich Village Orchestra Will Present its Season Finale STEALING FIRE

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) will present its season finale, Stealing Fire, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr and Associate Conductor Eric Mahl, on Sunday, May 3, 2020 at 4:00pm at Peter Norton Symphony Space. The program includes the NY premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon, co-commissioned by the GVO, and the US premiere of Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad's Saravá. Also on the program are Beethoven's Overture to 'Creatures of Prometheus,' and Respighi's Pines of Rome.

Jonathan Leshnoff's concerto was written for Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Clarinetist Michael Rusinek and Principal Bassoonist Nancy Goeres, and received its first performance June 6-9 2019 with the Pittsburgh Symphony. According to the Pittsburgh Gazette, "Mr. Leshnoff's writing bears a songlike smoothness, effectively expressed by the evening's soloists." GVO Music Director Barbara Yahr says, "It is an honor and a privilege to present two premieres on our season finale concert at Symphony Space. We have always been an orchestra interested in innovation, and we are eager to work with these two composers to bring their works to life. Nancy and Mike and I have been friends for over twenty years, and it's always a joy to find ways to work together."

Clarice Assad's Saravá. celebrates the life and legacy of Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes. The composer describes it as "a rhapsody: free, emotional and exuberant in character as I saw fit to celebrate such an iconic and seminal composer." GVO Associate Conductor Eric Mahl, who will conduct the piece, says "Clarice Assad is one of the most exciting composers writing today. Her music has an immediacy to it, as well as a complexity and interest, that I think speak to audiences on first hearing. It's also great fun to conduct and to play, and I think the GVO is up to the challenge!"

Tickets are available at gvo.org and the Symphony Space box office

Now in its 34th season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. The GVO was founded in 1986 by a group of musicians from the New York Metropolitan area. The 70-member community orchestra is made up of accountants, actors, artists, attorneys, carpenters, editors, physicians, professors, photographers, computer programmers, retirees, scientists, students, and teachers, among others. Now in it's 33rd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances.

The GVO regularly performs with internationally acclaimed soloists. In recent years, the orchestra has performed alongside soloists such as violinists Andrés Cárdenes, Itamar Zorman, and Hye-Jin Kim; cellists Edward Arron, Raman Ramakrishnan, David Heiss, and Brook Speltz; soprano Christine Goerke; mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Naomi O'Connell; baritone Jesse Blumberg; trumpet soloist Brandon Ridenour; and more.