Gerard Schwarz, conductor 

Santiago Rodriguez, piano

PROGRAM

RANDS: Chant [world premiere] 

RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor (Santiago Rodriguez, piano) 

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7 in A Major

The Frost Symphony Orchestra opens the season with the world premiere of Bernard Rands’s Chant, the fifth of six Centennial commissions. The Pulitzer Prize–winning composer—an enduring force in American music—has crafted this new score to honor the Frost School’s 100-year milestone.

Next in the program is one of the great high-wire acts in the repertoire, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor. Legendary pianist and Frost professor Santiago Rodriguez, 

praised as "a phenomenal pianist" by The New York Times and "among the finest pianists in the world" by The Baltimore Sun, takes on the concerto’s towering chords, sweeping lyricism, and famously fearsome cadenza. Beneath the virtuosity lies a deeply Russian melancholy: Rachmaninoff wrote the work on the eve of his first American tour, capturing both homesickness and newfound possibility in a single span.

The concert closes with the irrepressible energy of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major. Described by Wagner as the “apotheosis of the dance,” the Seventh drives forward on buoyant rhythms, from the infectious crescendos of the opening movement to the jubilant whirl of the finale. Between those bookends lies the noble Allegretto.

SAT/ SEP 20, 2025 / 7:30 PM

UM Gusman Concert Hall

$30  $25  $15