LESLIE DALA: ROMANCE TO RADIOHEAD
2025-2026 MUSIC SERIES
PRESENTED BY
LESLIE DALA: ROMANCE TO RADIOHEAD
NOVEMBER 16, 2025
EVERGREEN CULTURAL CENTRE - STUDIO THEATRE
ABOUT THE SHOW
Always popular with audiences, Leslie Dala intimately narrates from the piano how the works of the greatest composers of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries have personally inspired him.
Romance to Radiohead features music by Clara Schumann (3 Romances, Op.11), Franz Liszt (Petrarch Sonnets and Rigoletto Fantasy), a selection of Radiohead songs (transcribed by Christopher O’Riley) and the solo piano version of Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue.
Spanning music over a period of almost 200 years, the music is linked and inspired by the virtuosic piano writing of the early 19th century composer/ performers like Clara Schumann and Liszt. The jazz idiom of George Gershwin and the alternative rock idiom of Radiohead are cleverly infused by Leslie on this “classical” foundation.
Leslie Dala is the Associate Conductor and Chorus Director of Vancouver Opera and Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir. He enjoys an extensive multifaceted career spanning the genres of opera, symphonic music, choral and contemporary works. On the podium, Leslie is known for his passionate, dynamic, and charismatic approach to music making. He has conducted in Europe, Asia, throughout Canada and recently made his debut at Carnegie Hall and Santa Fe Opera.
TODAY’S PROGRAMME
Drei Romanzen, Op. 11
I Andante
Clara Schumann 1819-1896
II Andante/ Allegro passionato/Andante
III Moderato/Animato
Tre Sonetti di Petrarca Franz Liszt 1811-1886
Sonetto no. 47
Sonetto no. 104
Sonetto no. 123
Paraphrase on Verdi’s Rigoletto
INTERMISSION
Radiohead Transcriptions Christopher O’Riley b 1956
Good Morning Mr. Magpie
Exit Music for a Film
Subterranean Homesick Alien
You
Rhapsody
