Michael Stern, conductor

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

CHEN YI and ZHOU LONG Transplated Seeds

CHARLES IVES "The Unanswered Question"

GUSTAV MAHLER Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)

JOEL THOMPSON The Places We Leave

GUSTAV MAHLER "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" (I have been lost to the world) from Rückert-Lieder

JOHANN STRAUSS, JR. Overture to Die Fledermaus

Join Maestro Stern and superstar mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato for a dazzling evening of music.

Chen Yi and Zhou Long are distinguished composers and longtime faculty members at the UMKC Conservatory. They’ve collaborated on Transplanted Seeds, a piece that depicts their immigrant journey. You’ll be captivated by its brilliant orchestral colors and vivacious rhythms!

A truly inventive composer, Charles Ives penned music that invites you to ponder. The Unanswered Question is one of his most famous works and DiDonato, an innovative artist, sings this contemplative version.

Gustav Mahler wrote the poems that he later set to music in Songs of a Wayfarer, a thinly veiled autobiographical portrayal of his sensitive emotional state. The songs follow the wayfarer through poignant memories, sharp despair, love betrayed, resignation and dreams of solace. Also on the program, Mahler’s setting of poetry by German Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert is introspective and meditative, leaving behind the cares and tumult of the world.

“The Places We Leave” by Joel Thompson is an evocative setting of poetry by Tracy K. Smith, a U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. The combination of DiDonato’s luminous voice, Smith’s haunting words and Thompson’s lush orchestration will linger in your memory. Johan Strass, Jr.'s Overture to Die Fledermaus set the standard for rom-com soundtracks and never fails to please with its witty sparkle.