Funding for this program has bee by the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperi and purpose.

Linda and Alvaro Pascotto The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

In memory of Carol Franc Buck Additional support provided by these funders.

You know, one of the things that I'm aware when I go to a concert in a city, for example, is you're racing, you're in traffic, you're findin you're getting through 3000 peop loading into a hall.

And when you get there, you're kind of in it's intense.

And the way that this is designe almost a series of sort of exper first.

First, you're walking through the forest to the campus and then into the campus, to the courtyard area where there's picnicking and peo visiting and just lots of conver And then there's a ramp that almost feels sort of like a red carpet into a into a And so I think by the time peopl have taken their seats, they've sort of let life relax a and they're ready then to be pre and take in the concert.

That's coming.

There's only 300 seats and then almost 100 people on stage.

It's the largest orchestra I think we've ever fit on our st Wow.

I don't know that many plac where you have that kind of rati where you're right in the in the middle of all of this, th One of the pieces that will feature our wonderful soloist, Aldo Lopez-Gavilan, is his own concerto Emporium.

Emporium is a very special song for me, is a concerto form with three movements.

He is a classically trained pian who performs in a style which is influenced by Latin mus and by jazz.

But it's really very eclectic.

It's really his own sound and his own spirit.

The theme of the end of the conc which is the main theme througho the three movements, is a theme that I improvised the night before my daughter's birthday, and I played this theme for them, for my daug As a, as a present.

As a birthday present.

He kind of exudes this very welc and inspiring vibe.

He is wonderfully charismatic and just kind and good natured and wonderful to work with.

And you want to play well for hi because it's his piece.

It's the first piece of music in a very long time that has giv an emotional connection and an emotional response.

And I've been around lots of mus I've been around a lot of a lot of performances, and that one hits close to home.

So that's the one I'm most looking forward to.

Aldo's technique is extremely brilliant and facil and we hear all of this tremendous rhythmic vitality, but it also has a slow movement which is really expressive and g The second movement is is also very emotional.

I wanted to achieve a connection between our Cuban culture and the American culture.

My grandfather loved American mu especially choir songs.

And when I was a kid, I always heard my grandfather listening to all these records with these kind of music.

So it's also the family element there to the family love And that's it.

That's actually the message of the second movement, you know, trying to build a worl and doesnt matter where, but, you know, love is always predominant.

And in the third movement, I try to collect all the themes on the fractures of the other mo is very rhythmatic, very uplifti very exciting... ...very complicated to play.

In one moment, in the development of the third You can hear actually the three from each movement, from the first, the second and t all blended together.

For me, it's kind of a pinnacle of the piece.

performing live is very demandin You have to be very focused.

There was this wonderful Cuban composer Andrés Lane, who used t you have to make the people cry, but you cannot cry otherwise you And it's true.

You lose control.

You get too involved emotionally So it's very hard to get that right spot where you are focused where you are doing what you hav but still transmitting and feeli the emotion you need to, to have Because this concert is about lo I want to do this encore.

This is a piece that I composed.

For my wife.

Daiana.

For my wife.

Daiana.

He emanates a feeling of love.

You know, of love for just life, for others, for this music.

And the not just the hope, but the faith and the knowledge, the certainty that he knows it's going to bring people something amazing.

Puccini was a fan of music that could evoke emotion.

The opera Manon Lescaut.

It's a It's about a girl who's a workin and she falls in love with the g He falls in love with her, and she gets arrested and sent away Essentially.

That's the story.

Before Act Three, there's this i which is, you know, three or 4 minutes, 5 minutes of that is incredibly visual.

So this intermezzo starts with a quartet playing very desperate m It's despair.

And then it remembers the happie What's amazing is that essential all the string parts are playing the melody.

It's just incredibly powerful melodic musi It's moving.

That's like it's like the best part of what music can do.

Beethoven's First Symphony, he wrote it when he was 30 years And it's a kind of big statement saying, I'm here.

The third movement, which should a minuetto, ba ba, ba ba...

But then he makes it into this d a very dramatic gesture, which is revolutionary.

And he's saying, you know, Napoleon is there.

And he was a great fan of Napole until Napoleon became a dictator But he was all for Napoleon.

Sta And this period, you know, the F Revolution is only just behind u So it's only four or five years when all this stuff was happenin And Europe was this cauldron of sentiment going on all over the And the the slow movement, the s I mean, the minuet.

He he he does something very rev This is probably the most revolutionary thing in that particular period, but it's all related to the politica social environments going on.

Then the last movement it goes like a bat out of hell.

He does this, the beginning of the last movement this big Baauugh!!

and the first violins kind of whisper to us, dee da du ..ba da da dum... ...ba da dum bum bum... Then he does a funny thing here, ba da dee da da dum And then all of a sudden he goes (makes fast musical note sounds) So there's an immense joy.

At the same time, there's this feverish necessity to get someth which is desperately important, and not just for him, but for al And still today, it's desperatel important for all of us, I mean, thats why we make music, because it is desperately import It really is.

And all these geniuses, they have something very special to say about our situation in li our predicament in life.

We tend to think of it as being museum pieces, but they They are vital and they are incredibly intense.

It says something about us today come from.

Funding for this program has been provided by the FS Foundation bringing together adults of all and backgrounds as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

Linda and Alvaro Pascotto.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

In memory of Carol Franc Buck.

Additional support provided by these funders.