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NOVEMBER 1, 2025 AT 3 P.M. | CONCERT HALL

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS

Alexandre Kantorow, piano

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (arr. FRANZ LISZT)

NIKOLAI MEDTNER

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (arr. JOHANNES BRAHMS)

Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 5

Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 28

Chaconne in D minor

Please note the National Symphony Orchestra does not appear in this concert.

THANK YOU TO OUR SEASON SPONSORS

The NSO Music Director Chair is generously endowed by Roger Sant and Congresswoman Doris Matsui

Noseda Era Fund Supporters

The Amici di Gianandrea

Patrons are requested to turn off cell phones and other electronic devices during the performance. Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

Welcome

Dear Friends,

As we open the National Symphony Orchestra’s 95th season, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt thanks to you—our devoted patrons, supporters, and friends. Your presence this evening, and your unwavering support throughout the year, mean more than words can convey. It is your love of music, your generosity, and your steadfast belief in the arts that delight this remarkable orchestra.

In 1931, Hans Kindler founded the NSO with a bold vision: to build a world-class symphony orchestra in the heart of our nation’s capital. Nearly a century later, that vision continues to be our driving force. Today, under the dynamic artistic leadership of Gianandrea Noseda, we are more inspired than ever to share powerful performances with our audiences. The NSO is not simply an orchestra; it is a family of artists joined together through a shared love of music, unity of purpose, and commitment to something greater than us.

The NSO is more than what you see on stage—it is a living, breathing institution devoted to enriching lives. Our robust education and community engagement programs reach thousands of students, educators, and families each year. Between our Youth Fellowship Program and Summer Music Institute, to Young People’s Concerts, we strive to make music accessible to everyone—especially the next generation.

This commitment to connect with broader audiences is also seen through our vibrant, genre-defying series, led by the remarkable Steven Reineke, our Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor. Steven brings a wide-reaching musical vision to the NSO, bridging genres and generations. His programming has opened the door for new audiences to discover a love for orchestral music, while continuing to captivate longtime fans with the highest levels of artistry.

As we embark on this milestone season, we are reminded that our journey would not be possible without you. Thank you for being an essential part of this vibrant and enduring musical community.

With deepest gratitude and warmest regards,

Jean Davidson Executive Director National Symphony Orchestra

From the Music Director

Cari amici,

It is with immense joy and anticipation that I welcome you to the National Symphony Orchestra’s 95th anniversary season. This moment is more than a milestone—it is a celebration of our deep musical legacy and a renewed commitment to bringing powerful, moving performances to our community and beyond. This is only the beginning. The 95th season is filled with musical discovery, celebrated artists, and unforgettable experiences.

This season features iconic works that have stood the test of time, from classic masterpieces to thrilling contemporary music. The NSO also has the opportunity to share the stage with an exceptional lineup of guest artists and conductors—beloved icons and rising stars alike. Performing new music is something the NSO truly believes in. Make history with us as we present innovative new works, including five world premieres.

I am deeply grateful to share this journey with you. Your presence in the Concert Hall is what brings our music fully to life. Thank you for being a part of the NSO family—for your passion, your applause, and your unwavering support.

Con tutto il cuore,

Gianandrea Noseda

Music

Music Director, National Symphony Orchestra

Director, National Symphony Orchestra

Che la musica vi porti gioia e ispirazione—may music bring you joy and inspiration.

Notes on the Program

Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (arr. FRANZ LISZT)

Born approx. December 16, 1770, in Bonn, Germany

Died March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria

Franz Liszt was a serial transcriber. He wrote keyboard versions of all nine of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies, he created virtuoso fantasias on themes and arias from the major operas of his time, and he would also take songs by the likes of Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn and arrange them so they could be played on one piano. Though he was fearless in his willingness to recompose the works of other composers, he took the job quite seriously. In an introduction to his Beethoven transcriptions, he wrote that “I will be satisfied if I have accomplished the task of an intelligent engraver, the conscientious translator, who grasps the spirit of a work along with the letter.” He said something similar about his piano version of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, referring to the original as a “sacred text” that he had to render truthfully in a new medium.

If these mammoth projects are akin to reworking great tomes of literature, Liszt’s touching Prelude on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen is more like a sequence of contrasting translations of the same tragic poem. The source material for Liszt’s piece is the second movement of Bach’s Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, a church cantata that dates from 1714, soon after he started working as the konzertmeister in Weimar. The somber words sung in this movement were probably written by the Weimar court poet Salomon Franck; they read, “Weeping, lamenting, grieving, trembling, anguish, and distress are the Christian’s bread of tears.” For these lines, Bach writes a set of continuous variations based on a short, repeating chromatic bassline that descends in lamenting fashion. He piles on choral entries full of suspensions and out-of-key notes, reaching some tonally jarring depths in a remarkably short span of time.

Liszt actually produced two versions of the piece for keyboard: an 1859 Prelude, which takes that chromatic descent as a starting point, and an expanded set of variations that he wrote in 1862, mourning the death of his daughter Blandine. In the Prelude, Liszt begins reasonably close to the tonal language of Bach. After a few renditions of the bassline, he departs from his model, adding in harmonic twists and turns that fasten the piece to the stylistic tendencies of the 19th century. Liszt builds to a towering climax, including cascading arpeggios in the right hand of the piano for one variation and a thunderous tremolo—trembling—in the left hand in the next. Soon after, the tension is released, and the music fades until we hear the bassline by itself in a final, sad statement. Though the music winds up far away from Bach, Liszt recreates the emotional trajectory of the original—a case in which he preserves the spirit of a source rather than attempting to faithfully render the letter.

Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 5

NIKOLAI MEDTNER

Born January 5, 1880, in Moscow, Russia

Died November 13, 1951, in Golders Green, England

In late 1900, shortly after graduating with distinction from the Moscow Conservatory, pianist Nikolai Medtner shocked his parents by pulling out of a potentially lucrative series of concerts around Europe. He had had enough of trotting out the showy concerto by Anton Rubinstein that had won him praise at school, and he wanted to dedicate himself fully to writing music. He paid for his upkeep by teaching at a couple of institutions and set about proving to himself and his family that he could make it as a composer.

In the autumn of 1902, he was inspired by a performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto given by the eminent pianist Josef Hofmann and asked for a private audience with him. Medtner presented him with the first movement of his Piano Sonata in F minor, and Hofmann was impressed enough that he asked to hear it two more times, praising it as the best new piano piece that had been shown to him in recent days. Hofmann sent the score to the sonata around to prominent Russian musicians, which helped Medtner make the acquaintance of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff would become a great friend and promoter of the young composer, eventually going as far as to admit that “To be perfectly frank, I consider [Medtner] the most talented of all the modern composers. He is—as musician and as man—one of those rare beings who gain in stature the more closely you approach them.”

Hofmann and Rachmaninoff had reason to be impressed with his early sonata. The opening Allegro is a storm of notes, with a dramatic first theme that Medtner develops in bustling counterpoint across different ranges of the instrument. The movement’s secondary theme is a marvel—the kind of melody that sounds like you’ve known it for your entire life the first time you hear it. A sorrowful, downward scale in the right hand of the piano is given tremendous lifeforce and urgency by the running sixteenth notes in the left. It is the song of someone who wishes to dwell on a cause of great grief from the past but is completely caught up in the whirl of work and play in contemporary life. He uses this theme liberally throughout the movement, tensely layering it on itself in the development section and letting it pop out of the flutter of activity in the violent coda.

The second movement is a wandering Intermezzo set in highly chromatic four-part harmony. It subsides rather abruptly, and then Medtner introduces a string of crunchy chords in a slower tempo, followed by ominous repetitions of a three-note motif. It is ambiguous here as to whether this section is a coda or a transition to the following movement. The Largo divoto is full of celestial, bright dissonances that anticipate the searing, pious sonorities Olivier Messiaen devised at the piano decades later. The passionate prayer at the climax of the movement is marked “with enthusiasm,” and shortly after this outburst of feeling, the music that closed the Intermezzo repeats itself, clarifying the intermediary function of these measures. The fluttering, tense outbursts that open the finale soon give way to the return of the secondary theme from the first movement, which has been transformed into a major-key chorale. As in the opening Allegro, this theme becomes a nagging countermelody in the contrapuntal developmental section, before it is heard one final time in a broad Maestoso—a moment of triumph that heralds the scampering, final measures in F major.

Notes on the Program

Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 28

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF

Born April 1, 1873, in Semyonovo, Russia

Died March 28, 1943, in Beverly Hills, California

Sergei Rachmaninoff moved to Dresden with his family in the autumn of 1906, hoping the quiet there would help him focus on a trio of compositions: a new symphony, a piano sonata, and an opera. The relative isolation helped with writing the symphony, but it proved less useful for crafting his piano sonata. He solicited feedback and recommendations from various sources, and when he was back in Moscow in 1907, he made sure to play the piece through for an audience of friends that included composer Nikolai Medtner and the pianist Konstantin Igumnov.

After a multitude of cuts, Rachmaninoff produced a final version of the sonata, which was published in 1908, and he allowed Igumnov to debut it on a recital in October of that year. Joel Engel’s review of the premiere in the daily newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti was mixed, praising the piece’s “mastery of form, its abundance of interesting details,” but admitting that “It was difficult for the listener to free himself from an impression of dryness.” Rachmaninoff was very sensitive to this kind of criticism, and so he more or less dropped the piece after it was performed a couple more times; though it now has a few champions, it remains one of his least-played compositions.

Rachmaninoff struggled to determine what exactly his first piano sonata should be, at various points thinking about it in strictly formal terms, imagining it as a symphony, and wanting it to convey a specific story. Early in the process, he wrote his friend Nikita Morozov a cryptic message about issues of structure, likely pertaining to the first movement of the Sonata. He found himself coming back to an initial theme repeatedly in the home key, and as a result, he didn’t know how to end the movement or how many times to repeat the other themes he had come up with. “This is one of those accursed rondo forms,” he exclaimed to Morozov, and he asked him to send back a crash course in such forms and a rondo reading list from Beethoven’s piano sonatas to give him inspiration. The resulting movement is an elegant border case between sonata and rondo form. There is an extensive presentation of the initial theme, which is defined by stark, dotted figures separated by lots of space. A contrasting theme in B-flat major has the repeated notes and the murmuring quality of a prayer in the Russian Orthodox Church. He develops these themes intensively, eventually presenting them back in the tonic key in a varied fashion. The major-key coda soothes the rough edges of the preceding music with heavenly, bell-like ascents in the bass voice of the keyboard.

In the second movement, we can hear Rachmaninoff thinking orchestrally. The piano peals down a series of perfect fifths several times, lingering on the notes for unpredictable amounts of time, as if string players in a symphony are quietly tuning their instruments. When the melody begins, it forms one part of an active, polyphonic texture. We can imagine this being orchestrated rather like the Adagio from his contemporaneous second symphony, in which the clarinet wistfully sings above a quietly humming choir of strings, who churn in subtle sympathy with the melody.

Rachmaninoff intended the sonata to narrate the Faust legend, with the opening Allegro moderato introducing us to Faust himself; the second movement showing us Gretchen, an innocent woman he seduces; and the third depicting Mephistopheles, the Devil, to whom Faust has promised his soul. The final movement, an infectious witch’s dance with a saucy, polyrhythmic swagger, is the most programmatic of the three. In addition to the catchy opening material, we hear a march with quotations of the Dies Irae, the medieval chant for the day of wrath that became a calling card in Rachmaninoff’s later works. He also weaves in excerpts from the other two movements, before leading the work to a brutal, D-minor conclusion. In some renditions of the Faust legend, the hero is forgiven for his sins, but this sonata is clearly a telling in which he is eternally damned. Luckily, as in many musical depictions of demonic power, Rachmaninoff makes Hell seem like a swinging place to be.

Chaconne in D minor

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (arr. JOHANNES BRAHMS)

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia

Died November 6, 1893, in Saint Petersburg, Russia

One of the great challenges of translation is that sometimes new languages force a writer to specify information that remained ambiguous in the source text. Moving a poem from English to Italian might force a translator to identify the gender of a speaker or clarify whether the word “you” refers to one addressee or many, issues that might have been intentionally unclear in the original. A similar dilemma obtains for a special category of instrumental transcription. Often, musical arrangements are reductions: a transcriber takes a work for symphony orchestra and has to pick which notes to keep while rendering it for the piano, or for a string quartet. But some recomposing traditionally goes the other way, involving augmentation. There is a long tradition of making keyboard transcriptions of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Violin (BWV 1001–1006) and his Solo Cello Suites (BWV 1007–1012). But because the piano can play many more notes at once than these string instruments, most transcribers feel obliged to add harmonizations, octave doublings, and countermelodies—lest the keyboardist be subject to raised eyebrows for playing something unidiomatic to the instrument, or simply too easy. All these additions might be subtly implied by Bach’s writing, but there is still a sense in which, like in linguistic translation, a piano transcription can impel overdetermination of the original material.

Some transcribers of this repertoire, like the harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, attempted to render his extra voices and harmonizations in as stylistically accurate a manner as they could. Others took the question of adding extra material as an opportunity to distance themselves from the source work. In their wild, early 20thcentury transcriptions of assorted Bach string pieces, Leopold Godowsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff both added quirky, chromatic gestures to the mix that the original composer never could have imagined, turning the original works into something almost completely new. Ferruccio Busoni, in his transcription of the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita for Violin in D minor, mostly sticks to Bach’s harmonies but thickens the texture, giving the music the thundering power of a late-Romantic piano concerto.

One of the only Bach transcribers to effectively sidestep this issue was Johannes Brahms. In 1878, as part of a book of études, he published a transcription of the Chaconne for piano left hand. With five fingers, rather than ten, the pianist’s capacities are slightly closer to the four-fingered violinist, so Brahms felt comfortable dispensing with the urge to add too many extra notes. Bach’s original is a massive, continuous variation set on a severe harmonic pattern heard at the outset of the piece. It builds to two climaxes, one in minor and one in major, before returning to the minor key for a serious, almost funereal close. The piece, as written for violin, has slews of chords and double stops, so the original text fits naturally to one hand on the piano. Brahms drops down one octave, so the range is comfortable for the left hand, but otherwise he only departs substantially from what Bach wrote in the free arpeggiated sections—places where the composer indicates the harmonies, but not exactly how they should be played or timed across the strings of the instrument. Here, where Bach has given the player free rein to improvise, Brahms alternates flowing, legato triplets with sharp, toccata-like figurations—little displays of the playing style of the Romantic era. But he never takes these modifications very far; he truly creates a context where a pianist can give a reading of this extraordinary violin music and not be forced to say all that much more than Bach wrote.

Meet the Artist

Alexandre Kantorow, pianist

In 2019, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition, as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times before in the competition’s history. He has been hailed by critics as “the reincarnation of Liszt” (Fanfare), and in September 2023, he became the youngest and first French winner of the Gilmore Artist Award, one of the most prestigious and important American and international music prizes, awarded every four years.

Kantorow has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors. In recent years, he has appeared with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms in London, John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, and Iván Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He has also toured internationally with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden, and with the Orchestre National de France and Cristian Măcelaru.

In recital, he performs in some of the world’s most renowned concert halls, such as Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in its Master Pianists series, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR in Brussels, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, as well as at the most prestigious festivals including La Roque-d’Anthéron, the Ravinia Festival, the Verbier Festival, and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr.

Chamber music is also one of his great passions, which he shares notably with Liya Petrova and Aurélien Pascal. He is co-artistic director alongside them of the Musikfest and the Rencontres Musicales de

Nîmes, as well as the Pianopolis festival in Angers.

Alexandre Kantorow records exclusively for BIS. His recordings have received the highest critical acclaim worldwide.

In 2024, Alexandre was awarded the title of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by the French President of the Republic, having already been made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture. In July 2024, performing Ravel's Jeux d’eau, Alexandre appeared at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. Alexandre Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley, and Rena Shereshevskaya.

Pipe Dreams

This November, Louis Langrée leads the National Symphony Orchestra and organist Marvin Mills in Camille Saint-Saëns’ triumphant Symphony No. 3—the “Organ Symphony.” It’s a rare opportunity to hear the towering chords of the organ thunder through the Concert Hall.

Those glistening silver pipes at the back of the stage are ready to sing out, but what the audience can see is only a fraction of the majestic instrument.

Installed in 2012, the current Rubenstein Family Organ replaced the Center’s “Filene” organ, installed in 1972 and eventually deemed unsalvageable in 2008. After four years of fundraising, two years of construction, and over three months of installation, the new Casavant Bros. company organ made its debut in the Concert Hall.

The installation process was no easy feat. Two technicians tuned and voiced the organ each night over several weeks. With one man at the console and the other 40 feet in the air among the pipes, they worked together to perfect the sound by opening or closing air holes and shaving or moving parts of pipes. The precise, careful process paid off, creating the powerful, breathing instrument that lives in the Concert Hall today.

BY THE NUMBERS

3 packed semitrucks hauled the instrument to the Center

20 tons is the instrument’s total weight

4,972 pipes of all sizes make up the organ

0.625 inches is the length of the smallest pipes

32 feet is the length of the largest pipes

150 decibels is the loudest an organ can reach

The organ’s console consists of…

4 manual keyboards

32 long wooden pedals

104 stops (knobs that each control a group of 61 pipes)

A technician tunes the new Rubenstein Family Organ during installation

Loud and Clear

Nine terms to know in the Concert Hall, loosely defined.

Symphony

An extended work with multiple sections—typically four movements.

A “symphonic” piece is a long piece with multiple interpretations of a musical idea. A repeated, transformed musical idea is called a theme

Orchestra

A group of musicians who play together.

In the Western European tradition, an orchestra often includes the four major instrument families—brass, woodwinds, strings, and percussion. An especially large orchestra is called a symphony orchestra. A smaller orchestra is called a chamber orchestra.

Movement

A section of a musical work. Movements are often separated by silences, and they typically differ in tempo—speed.

Sonata

Originally, a musical composition played on instruments. In modern usage, “sonata” can mean a piece for a soloist or an ensemble, often with two to four movements.

If a work or a movement is written in sonata form, it is structured in three sections: exposition, development, and recapitulation.

Concerto

A piece pairing a technically advanced soloist with the support of an orchestra, usually in three movements. Though there may be multiple soloists, the contrast between a larger ensemble and a soloing group defines a concerto.

Cantata

A musical composition with both a vocal and an instrumental part. Cantatas are often used in church services—church cantatas

Overture

An orchestral instrumental introduction to a dramatic musical work, such as an opera or a ballet. Composers, particularly those of the Romantic Period, sometimes composed independent concert overtures, intended to begin a larger musical program.

Romantic music

Works associated with the 19th-century Romantic Period. Building off the intellectual innovation of the Romanticism movement, Romantic music emphasizes self-expression, emotion, and experimentation.

Chaconne

A musical framework characterized by a three-beat meter, a major key, a repeating bassline, and/or a harmonic progression—a series of chords.

National Symphony Orchestra Staff

ADMINISTRATION

Jean Davidson, Executive Director

Sabryn McDonald, Executive Assistant

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Kasama Apfelbaum, Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis

Nigel Boon, Vice President, Artistic Planning

John Roloff, Vice President, Orchestra Operations

ARTISTIC PLANNING

Justin Ellis, Senior Producing Director

Ana Vashakmadze, Artistic Assistant Administrator

DEVELOPMENT

Kate Baker, Assistant Manager, NSO Board and Leadership Campaigns

Laney Pleasanton, Manager, NSO Individual Giving

Pamela Wardell, Senior Director of Development

EDUCATION

Stephanie Baker, Manager, Career and Development Programs

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Eric Rubio, Director of Finance & Administration

HUMAN RESOURCES

Tony Amato, Director, Total Rewards

Chanel Kemp, Talent Acquisition Manager

Patrice McNeill, Director, HR Operations

Lisa Motti, HRIS Coordinator

Ericka Parham, Benefits Analyst

John Sanford, Senior Business Partner

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

Scott Bushnell, Senior Director, Creative and Brand Strategy

Lily Maroni, Senior Manager, Advertising Communications

Elizabeth Stoltz, Advertising Production & Special Projects Assistant Manager

Kaila Willard, Marketing Manager, Analytics and CRM Strategy

Derek Younger, Director, Sales & Ticketing Service

ORCHESTRA OPERATIONS & CONCERT PRODUCTION

Brooke Bartolome, Assistant Manager, Orchestra Operations

Joseph Benitez, Media & OPAS Support Coordinator

N. Christian Bottorff, Assistant Stage Manager

Karyn Garvin, Director of Orchestra Personnel

David Langrell, Stage Manager

Sufyan Naaman, Personnel and Auditions Coordinator

Ava Yap, Operations Assistant

Kennedy Center Staff

KENNEDY CENTER EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

President, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Chief Financial Officer

Ambassador Richard Grenell

Donna Arduin General Counsel

Senior Vice President, Development

Senior Vice President, Marketing

Senior Vice President, Special Events

Vice President, Human

Vice President, Operations

Vice President,

Vice President, Public Relations

Chief Information Officer

Executive Director, National Symphony Orchestra

General Director, Washington

Concert Hall Staff

Theater Manager

Box Office Treasurer

Berke

Dale

Osborne

Donlon

Allen V. McCallum Jr.

Deborah Glover

Head Usher Cathy Crocker

Stage Crew

*Represented by ATPAM, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.

The technicians at the Kennedy Center are represented by Local #22, Local #772, and Local #798 I.A.T.S.E. AFL-CIO-CLC, the professional union of theatrical technicians.

Zach Boutilier, Michael Buchman, Paul Johannes, April King, John Ottaviano, and Arielle Qorb

Steinway Piano Gallery is the exclusive area representative of Steinway & Sons and Boston pianos, the official pianos of the Kennedy Center.

The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union of professional singers, dancers and production personnel in opera, ballet and concert, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, represents the Artists and Staging Staff for the purposes of collective bargaining.

The box office at the Kennedy Center is represented by I.A.T.S.E, Local #868.

National Symphony Orchestra musicians are represented by the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Federation of Musicians, AFM Local 161-710.

Orchestrated Lives

Each month, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) spotlights a different musician in the Orchestra. For this program, former Assistant Principal Viola Abigail Evans Kreuzer discusses onstage memories, her childhood in the classical music world, and the potentially warranted vitriol of viola jokes.

Name: Abigail Evans Kreuzer

Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Instrument: Viola

Years with the NSO: 21

How did you find your way into the world of professional musicianship? We ended up in Pittsburgh because my dad got his dream job in the Pittsburgh Symphony—he was a bass player. Sometimes he brought me along to rehearsals, and I got to sit in the hall by myself and watch people do amazing things on stage. It felt very exciting to me. When I started playing in an orchestra myself, it just felt like home.

What attracted you to the viola? I actually came to the viola by complete chance. I started as a violinist, but one summer, I was going to attend Meadowmount School of Music, which is a summer practice festival. They were offering extra scholarship money for anyone willing to play viola in a chamber group. I was really nervous about it because I didn't read the clef, but I somehow managed to figure out a way to convert treble clef to alto. It was so glorious; I just wanted to keep doing it. I took a year off and studied the viola privately with Paul Silver, who was a violist in the Pittsburgh Symphony. He got me ready for college auditions, and then I went to the Cleveland Institute of Music as a violist.

Do you think that the instruments musicians choose reflect their personalities? It's a chicken-or-the-egg situation. Certain personalities are drawn to certain instruments, but the culture of those instruments also influences their personalities. The viola is famous for having a whole genre of jokes about it. They're broken down into a few categories. One is that violists are terrible musicians—they sound bad when they play. Another genre is, like, violists are stupid. And then the other one is just doing destructive things to a viola because it's such a terrible instrument that it should be destroyed. It comes from the viola being a very awkward instrument—what it takes for it to be able to sound good. What I like about violas is that they often have a very good sense of humor about being the butt of the joke.

Do you have a favorite memory from your time at the NSO? The one that will stand out to me probably as long as I live is the last concert we did with [Spanish conductor] Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. We played Pines of Rome, and we all knew that he was not well. He still had a lot of mental energy, but his body was very frail, and we later found out he had cancer. As the piece went on, he looked like he was gasping for air. He stumbled forward, and one of my colleagues had to support him, and everything stopped for a few moments. He sat down on the podium and took a moment, and then he lifted his arm and was like, “Let's go. Why did you guys stop playing?” Our principal clarinet at the time, Loren Kitt, just started playing again. We finally got to the last movement, which is this very triumphant march. At that point, he stood up and finished the piece on his feet. We were all completely emotional. It was one of those moments that you don't forget—just to see the music carrying him through that. All of us on stage wanted to lift him up.

Support your ORCHESTRA

The mission of the National Symphony Orchestra, an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is to engage audiences locally, across the country, and around the world through excellence in performance and education. Each year, the NSO offers approximately 150 concerts as well as some of the country’s most extensive community and educational programming. It regularly participates in events of national and international importance, including performances for state occasions, high-level government events, and regularly televised holiday appearances for Capitol Concerts and local radio broadcasts on WETA, making the NSO one of the most-heard orchestras in the country.

Give your support in this 95th season by becoming a Member, joining the NSO Circles, or pledging a Legacy Gift. Visit tkc.co/SupportNSO or scan the QR code.

Thank You to Kennedy Center Supporters

The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees

National Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors

Washington National Opera Board of Trustees

The Kennedy Center President’s Council

The Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts

President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts

National Committee for the Performing Arts

National Symphony Orchestra National Trustees

The Kennedy Center Circles Board

The Kennedy Center Community Advisory Board

The Kennedy Center Corporate Fund Board

The Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary Committee

Corporate Donors

Individual and Foundation Donors

Endowment Gifts, Bequests, and Legacy Donors

Building the Future Campaign Donors

Visit tkc.co/Support for a full listing of donors and to learn how you can join us by becoming a Member.

Andrew Geraci

Steven’s Classical Mixtape

NSO Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Steven Reineke brings the playlist of his dreams to life! Steven’s Classical Mixtape is packed with unforgettable melodies—from Boléro to Clair de Lune, Nimrod, and Pines of Rome, plus a few surprises along the way.

November 7 & 8, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” | Ohlsson plays Beethoven

Beethoven’s wit and lyricism make his Piano Concerto No. 1 a perfect showcase for pianist Garrick Ohlsson. Louis Langrée conducts Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony.”

November 13, 2025 at 7 p.m.

November 14, 2025 at 11:30 a.m.

November 15, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Ferrández plays

Lutosławski

Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Edward Gardner leads Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Symphony No. 5. Pablo Ferrández uses the cello’s dynamic tonal range to engage the orchestra in a captivating conversation.

November 20, 2025 at 7 p.m.

November 22, 2025 at 8 p.m.

November 23, 2025 at 3 p.m.

2025–2026 CLASSICAL SEASON PERFORMANCE CALENDAR

Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” Ohlsson plays Beethoven

Thu., Nov. 13, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Nov. 14, 2025 at 11:30 a.m.

Sat., Nov. 15, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Ferrández plays Lutosławski

Thu., Nov. 20, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Sat., Nov. 22, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Sun., Nov. 23, 2025 at 3 p.m.

Mahler’s Tenth, Adagio Lyric Symphony

Thu., Dec. 4, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Dec. 5, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Sat., Dec. 6, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Handel’s Messiah

Thu., Dec. 18, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Dec. 19, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Sat., Dec. 20, 2025 at 8 p.m.

Sun., Dec. 21, 2025 at 1 p.m.

The Rite of Spring Trifonov plays Brahms

Thu., Jan. 15, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 16, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., Jan. 17, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Songs of Destiny & Fate

Thu., Jan. 22, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 23, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., Jan. 24, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Le Poème Divin Brahms’ Double Concerto

Thu., Jan. 29, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 30, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.

Sat., Jan. 31, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Shostakovich’s Eighth Abduraimov plays Tchaikovsky

Thu., Feb. 5, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Feb. 6, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.

Sat., Feb. 7, 2026 at 8 p.m.

American Mosaic

Thu., Feb. 19, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Sat., Feb. 21, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sun., Feb. 22, 2026 at 3 p.m.

Shaham & Shaham play Reena Esmail Robertson conducts Sibelius’ Fifth

Thu., Feb. 26, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Feb. 27, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.

Sat., Feb. 28, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Winter Daydreams: Noseda conducts Tchaikovsky’s First Trpčeski plays Saint-Saëns

Fri., Mar. 6 at 11:30 a.m.

Sat., Mar. 7 at 8 p.m.

Hahn & Woods play

Carlos Simon Brahms’ Third

Thu., Mar. 12, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Mar. 13, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., Mar. 14, 2026 at 8 p.m.

NSO Presents*

Alexandra Dovgan

Sat., Mar. 14, 2026 at 3 p.m.

Death and Transfiguration

Khachatryan plays Sibelius

Thu., Apr. 2, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Apr. 3, 2026 at 11:30 a.m. Sat., Apr. 4, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Bruckner’s Seventh Gerlach plays Haydn

Fri., Apr. 10, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., Apr. 11, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Mozart’s “Jupiter” & Bach’s Brandenburg No. 1

Wed., Apr. 15, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Thu., Apr. 16, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., Apr. 17, 2026 at 8 p.m.

NSO Presents*

Khatia Buniatishvili

Fri., Apr. 24, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Opera in Concert

Puccini’s Il trittico

Wed., Apr. 29, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Fri., May 1, 2026 at 7 p.m.

Renée Fleming’s Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene

Fri., May 29, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., May 30, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Cann plays Coleman

Fri., June 5, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., June 6, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Philip Glass’ “Lincoln”

Dalene plays Barber

Fri., June 12, 2026 at 8 p.m.

Sat., June 13, 2026 at 8 p.m.

*Please

A look back at our history

1939

NSO Music Director Hans Kindler leads the Orchestra in a summer outdoor concert on a floating barge anchored at the foot of the stone steps below the Lincoln Memorial.

Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress

A look back at our history

1958

Music Director Howard Mitchell conducts the NSO at Constitution Hall. Photographer unknown, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

1970s A look back at our history

NSO Music Director Antal Doráti conducts the NSO.

Photo by Richard Braaten, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

A look back at our history

1987

NSO Music Director Mstislav Rostropovich conducts the NSO with guest soloist soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, his wife.

Photo by Joan Marcus, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

A look back at our history

1996

Music man Bobby McFerrin wowed Washingtonians when he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra concerts for families and school children.

Photo by Carol Pratt, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

2000 A look back at our history

Pianists John Browning, Sara Davis Buechner, Brian Ganz, Joseph Kalichstein, Lambert Orkis, and Jeffrey Siegel play Franz Liszt’s Hexameron with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Leonard Slatkin for the Piano 2000 festival.

Photo by Carol Pratt, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

2015 A look back at our history

Kendrick Lamar and the NSO led by Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke delivered a one-night-only performance featuring some of Lamar’s biggest hits and the first-ever live performances of music from his lyrical masterpiece “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

Photo by Elman Studio, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

2022 A look back at our history

As the concluding event of Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary celebration, Leonard Bernstein’s MASS returned 51 years after its world premiere at the Center in a dynamic staging featuring the NSO, guest conductor James Gaffigan, and baritone Will Liverman in the role of Celebrant.

Photo by Scott Suchman, Courtesy of the Kennedy Center Archives

Take home... a musical memory.

Mozart Magic Flute Earrings

These exquisite earrings bring Mozart’s masterpiece to life with fluteinspired details that create a visual symphony. $42

NSO Cap and T-shirt

Our new National Symphony Orchestra cap and tee let you show your pride in our world-class symphony. $30 each

Make Your Own Music Mug

No better way to start your day than with a coffee mug imprinted with blank sheet music and sticker notes so you can compose your own melody. $20

Visit our two gift shops on Level A and in the Hall of States. Shop online 24/7 at tkc.co/shop

Create an experience... that will last a lifetime.

WEDDINGS AT THE REACH

REACH wedding rentals offer a variety of indoor and outdoor venues to create an unforgettable celebration of love. Situated on the south end of the Kennedy Center Campus, the REACH is a premier Washington, D.C. event venue. With stunning views of the Potomac River, the largest green roof in D.C., and multifunctional event spaces, the REACH provides new elegance with a modern aesthetic.

Visit tkc.co/weddings or scan the QR code for more information.