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Symphony at the Sid 2026-2027

WINTER GLOW

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2027  2:00 PM

BUY SERIES TICKETS (3 CONCERTS)
BUY SERIES TICKETS + THE CELTIC TENORS
SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE AUG 18 @ 12 PM

Highlighting the expressive range of music written for string orchestra, from Caroline Shaw’s playful reinvention Entr’acte to the stark intensity of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony. Barber’s Adagio for Strings offers a moment of quiet reflection, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings closes the concert with warmth and contentment. The perfect program for a winter afternoon.

GUEST CONDUCTOR: Dina Gilbert

Featuring the musicians from the VIS String Section

PROGRAMME

Caroline SHAW: Entr’acte

Dimtri SHOSTAKOVICH: Chamber Symphony in C minor, OP. 110a

Samuel BARBER: Adagio for Strings

Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade for Strings

Symphony at the Sid 2026-2027

WINTER GLOW

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2027  2:00 PM

BUY SERIES TICKETS (3 CONCERTS)
BUY SERIES TICKETS + THE CELTIC TENORS
SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE AUG 18 @ 12 PM

Highlighting the expressive range of music written for string orchestra, from Caroline Shaw’s playful reinvention Entr’acte to the stark intensity of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony. Barber’s Adagio for Strings offers a moment of quiet reflection, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings closes the concert with warmth and contentment. The perfect program for a winter afternoon.

GUEST CONDUCTOR: Dina Gilbert

Featuring the musicians from the VIS String Section

PROGRAMME

Caroline SHAW: Entr’acte

Dimtri SHOSTAKOVICH: Chamber Symphony in C minor, OP. 110a

Samuel BARBER: Adagio for Strings

Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade for Strings

Dina Gilbert
Conductor

Regularly invited to conduct across Canada and internationally, Dina Gilbert is celebrated for her electrifying presence, precision, and fearless artistic vision. She is currently Music Director of the Walla Walla Symphony, Principal Conductor of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, and Associate Conductor of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.

She has appeared with major ensembles including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and national orchestras in Lyon, Metz, and Pays de la Loire. Her repertoire spans classical masterworks, new commissions, multidisciplinary projects, and innovative symphonic programs.

She has premiered more than forty works by emerging Canadian composers, led numerous ballet creations and large-scale multimedia projects. Deeply committed to music education, she has reached thousands of children across the country through her participative Conducting 101 workshops. From 2017 to 2025, she made her mark as Music Director of the Kamloops Symphony through bold programming, compelling performances and audience development rotted in strong connections with the community.

Dina Gilbert earned her doctorate from the Université de Montréal and cultivated her musicianship under the mentorship of Maestro Kent Nagano and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, also assisting notable guest conductors including Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington.

Dimitri Shostakovich
Composer

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich[n 1] (25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist[1] who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major composer.

Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was initially a success, but eventually was condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk. In 1948 his work was denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure was rescinded in 1956, performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Shostakovich was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death), as well as chairman of the RSFSR Union of Composers (1960–1968). Over the course of his career, he earned several important awards, including the Order of Lenin, from the Soviet government.

Shostakovich combined a variety of different musical techniques in his works. His music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; he was also heavily influenced by neoclassicism and by the late Romanticism of Gustav Mahler. His orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti (two each for piano, violin, and cello). His chamber works include 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, and two piano trios. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an early set of 24 preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Stage works include three completed operas and three ballets. Shostakovich also wrote several song cycles, and a substantial quantity of music for theatre and film.

Shostakovich’s reputation has continued to grow after his death. Scholarly interest has increased significantly since the late 20th century, including considerable debate about the relationship between his music and his attitudes toward the Soviet government.

 

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Samuel Osborne Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century; music critic Donal Henahan stated, “Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim.”

His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee. At the time of Barber’s death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded.

 

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 [O.S. 25 April] – 6 November [O.S. 25 October]1893), was a Russian composer of the romantic period, whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. He was honored in 1884 by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at that time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five, with whom his professional relationship was mixed.

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