Five years ago, during our 90th season, the WSO was set to perform a concert centered around Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. At the end of the rehearsal, we experienced something unprecedented: our Board President and Executive Director approached the stage and told us that we would need to cancel the concert out of concern for the unfolding health situation taking place around the country. What followed was a period of uncertainty and fear, the likes of which none of us had encountered in our lifetime. Along with the traumas, however, came a stronger sense of community for us all.
With half a decade having passed, we felt that now was the time for us to collectively reflect on that period. What things were good, what things were bad, and what changes have we experienced? We will do this in conversation with the community during our Festival of Ideas that accompanies this concert period, and we will do this through our music.
During the performance, we will revisit another “memory,” as the phenomenal young pianist Maxim Lando returns to Wheeling for Prokofiev’s second concerto. Maxim joined us to close our first season back from COVID, and we feel lucky to be able to welcome him back to the Capitol.
