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Perry So Leads New Haven Symphony on March 26 at SCSU

On Sunday, March 26 at 3 p.m. at the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts at Southern Connecticut State University, guest conductor and music director candidate Perry So will lead the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) in a concert program including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, León’s Ácana, and Barber’s Violin Concerto featuring guest soloist Aubree Oliverson.

In describing his musical selections, Perry So says, “Our concert presents three breakthrough pieces by three composers… three lonely musicians working hard to carve out a place for themselves in a world skeptical of what they stood for. Ludwig van Beethoven perpetually cut an alienating figure socially and professionally. His third symphony is an epic personal response of a young artist to the political and social upheavals of his time, in the process discovering his iconic voice. Joined by violinist Aubree Oliverson, we will catch composer Samuel Barber at the height of his success in the lyrical and elegiac Violin Concerto. Recently honored at the Kennedy Center, widespread recognition has finally come for Cuban-born composer Tania León, whose sinuous and kaleidoscopic work Ácana will open our concert.”

Perry So is the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra (Navarre Symphony Orchestra). Four music director finalists – Donato Cabrera, Tania Miller, Perry So, and James Blachly – will each spend a different week in New Haven this winter and spring, rehearsing with the orchestra for a concert that they have programmed, leading music education activities, and meeting with key community constituency groups. Current Music Director Alasdair Neale’s tenure will continue through the Spring of 2024 and the new Music Director will begin in the role in the Summer of 2024.

Aubree Oliverson won the ‘2021 Special Prize of Merit’ for violin at the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland, a National YoungArts Foundation award, was honored as a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and was selected for the Dorothy DeLay Fellowship and concerto performance at the Aspen Music Festival.