Fidor Yakimenko: Nocturne for Strings
Serge Prokofiev: Concerto No. 1 for Violin & Orchestra
Samy Moussa: Violin Concerto
Richard Strauss: Don Juan

The strings reign supreme in this concert, which includes our outstanding guest violinist Kerson Leong, who will be featured playing Prokofiev’s Concerto No.1 for Violin & Orchestra, and contemporary composer Samy Moussa’s Violin Concerto. The Canadian artist was called “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists, but one of the greatest violinists, period” by the Toronto Star. Since his First Prize win at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in 2010, Kerson has established himself among the world’s elite. “…(T)he young Canadian violinist possesses a natural command and a devastating charisma, a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy and intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the very first notes.” – Le Monde.

Guest conductor Nodoka Okisawa leads Kerson and the WSO in an evening featuring one of Richard Strauss’s great orchestral showpieces, Don Juan. Performed for the first time in 1888, this work set the musical world on fire! A story of the loves and losses of the amorous Don Juan, the score blazes with virtuosity and luminous melody and ends with an unforgettable finale.

The tone for the programme is set by Ukrainian composer Fidor Yakimenko’s Nocturne for Strings.

CONCERT PROGRAM

Pre-Concert Performance

Faustin et Maurice Jeanjean: Quatuor pour saxophones
(1900-1979, 1897-1968)

I. Gaieté villageoise
II. Doux paysage
III. Papillons
IV. Concert sur la place

Various (arr. L. Conley): Christmas Carols for Saxophone Quartet

University of Manitoba Saxophone Quartet