Gerard Schwarz, conductor

PROGRAM

PANUFNIK: Sinfonia Sacra

CHOLODENKO: Do the Angels in the Sky Sing to the Moon? (world premiere)

BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto TBA (Student Soloist TBA)

DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 8 in G major

This program traces three visions of spiritual and national identity. It opens with Andrzej Panufnik’s Sinfonia Sacra (1963), written to mark a thousand years of Polish Christianity and statehood. Panufnik, who helped rebuild the Warsaw Philharmonic after World War II before defecting to the West, frames the symphony around the ancient Polish hymn Bogurodzica.

The concert features the premiere of Daniel Cholodenko’s Do the Angels in the Sky Sing to the Moon?, a luminous reflection on wonder and transcendence. A Beethoven piano concerto (to be announced) follows, balancing classical poise with the composer’s hallmark urgency and breadth.

The concert concludes with Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, whose pastoral warmth and Bohemian dance rhythms evoke the composer’s deep affection for the Czech countryside. 

SAT / NOV 15, 2025 / 7:30 P.M.

UM Gusman Concert Hall

$20  $16  $10