>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour is being made right now across WXXI and city platforms, where classical music fans can hear and read about the Rochester Philharmonic's new season.

RPO music director Andreas Delfs and principal pops conductor Jeff Tyzik are with us this hour talking about what you can expect from the 2026 2027 season.

From iconic masterworks and a new piano festival to Broadway hits.

Tribute to a Rochester legend, some big names in music, and more.

And it comes at a time when, well, look, we've been hearing from industry experts argue about classical music, whether it's in crisis.

They've been talking about that for a decade or more.

They say new generations don't seem to care enough that the music is too long.

Or does Gen Z think it's too boring?

Well, actor Timothee Chalamet took some heat recently for making comments about ballet and opera, saying no one cares about those genres.

And last week we talked about how it is not a good idea when art turns on each other, because there's so much to celebrate.

So this hour, I think our guests are going to have plenty to say about that and more.

With this new season, we're going to talk with them about how the new season is meant to have something for everyone in the community, no matter what your musical tastes are, including new generations.

And of course, long time fans, they put these seasons together very carefully and they're here to reveal it with us.

Maestro Andreas Delfs is with us, music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Welcome back to the program, sir.

It's nice to see you.

>> Thank you Evan, lovely to be here.

>> With us in studio is Mike Cidoni public relations and communications manager for the RPO.

Nice to see you in studio, Mike.

>> It's great to be here.

It's always great to put a face with a voice.

>> I know Mike and I have been sort of communicating from afar forever, so it's nice to be in the same room with you.

>> When I was packing to move from Los Angeles, it was this show that kept convincing me, yes, going back to Rochester.

Oh, get out of here.

I'm totally serious.

>> Flattery will get you everywhere.

>> It's true.

>> And welcome to Jeff Tyzik, principal pops, conductor for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hello, Jeff.

Nice to see you, sir.

>> Great to see you.

>> So, before we jump into the season, let me just ask Mike to kind of set the stage because when you're rolling this out, people are going to want to know about subscriptions and tickets and plans, et cetera.

What do people need to know today?

>> So I'll get into the actual specifics at the very end of this, because it could go on forever.

The deal is this the very first time anybody outside of the RPO universe has heard about what these two conductors are going to talk about, which is our 2627 schedule is right now.

yes, Evan, we love you that much.

I love it.

We have not revealed the schedule.

in fact, our maestro had not seen the actual finished season brochure until this very moment.

This brochure is arriving in about 3000 households, I believe today.

For those who currently have subscriptions, and they are in a window that started at 10 a.m.

today where they can renew for next year and they can see every single show in here.

However nobody else.

It's an exclusive group unless you want a pair of tickets.

and then it rolls out in about a month.

another group of folks who want to buy subscriptions to say a full series or a pop series.

they may do that.

And then when we get to the end of July, everyone anywhere can buy tickets for anything.

And I'll give you the specifics later.

>> Well, it's a, it's a big deal in this community to kind of see what a season looks like.

And can I ask can I ask our guest to describe a little bit about this process?

I mean, maestro is telling me before the program, your brain and your mind are still on the current season.

You're forgiven for that, but you're always looking ahead, trying to plan, trying to figure out, you know, how do we create a season that has something for everyone, honors the classics, plays the hits, while also bringing the new.

Can you describe Andrea's a little bit of your philosophy for what you want a season to look and sound like?

>> Sure.

With pleasure.

We have a very diverse audience, very varied groups of people, and we always try to bring the best to the most and have make sure that our programs reach a wide audience.

That means, of course, a certain amount needs to go to what we call the warhorses.

People still like Beethoven, people still like Tchaikovsky and Brahms.

So there has to be enough of that.

But there also has to be enough that speaks to a new generation.

I don't necessarily want to say young generation because many people discover classical music when they're a little bit older in their life, when they have a little bit more time to go to concerts and so forth.

So we always try to bring new pieces.

That's why we have our wonderful series, Voices of Today, where we actually commission some of the greatest composers of the day to write specific pieces for us.

And we've done then for two years now and will continue next season.

at the same time, we try to do the formula not too predictable.

the predictable formula is an overture, a solo concerto intermission and a symphony, which is great.

And everybody loves that.

So we have enough of those.

But we also try to have enough curated concert, which kind of are talking about a specific subject.

And in this new season, like last season, we have actually two little mini festivals that focus.

one focuses on the piano and one focuses on music for the movies.

And because, as I said, not everybody is there for the overture, Concerto, Symphony, where there's enough of that.

But for those of the people that like some unusual and some new stuff, there's also a great deal of that.

And that's basically how we start planning our season.

We want to mix it up well.

We have to wait a little longer than is good for us for the dates.

That's an important part of the planning process because, you know, we share Kodak Hall with other groups, namely with the Eastman School of Music.

So it's always a puzzle to see what dates can we get.

Then we can start to invite guest soloists.

And of course, we want to have not only sparkling and stellar solos, but also unusual soloists.

And we have quite a number of those in the next season, which I can tell you more about.

So once we have the basic idea, as I lined out before and the dates in hand, then we start to actually fill in individually each slot with a program, a conductor and a soloist.

>> So before I turn to your colleague Jeff Tyzik on this, let me be the voice of maybe one of your typical fans and make an argument for a lot of the classics.

I've talked to your predecessors about this.

We've talked about the challenge in saying, well, listen, there are certain symphonies that if we put this on the menu, we're going to sell it out.

I mean, I can you can name the classic the the highest grossing symphonies of all time.

The reason that I, as a music fan would ask you to stay on those, to stay on the I can do Beethoven's ninth and fifth and third.

I can do Shostakovich's fourth and fifth I can do every year.

I could do those.

The reason is because we've become so digitized as a culture.

So much of what we experience isn't together with people anymore.

And to see live orchestras do what you do, even when it's something we've heard so many times, is a thrill that is becoming increasingly rare.

Is that a good argument to keep doing those classics, even if you've done them a lot?

>> It is a very good argument, and nothing beats the experience of classical music than hearing it live and seeing it live.

It's the visual, the visual factor as there as well, and there is some chemistry going on between the music and the musicians and then the audience that you cannot replicate in any other way than a live performance.

And I agree with you, there is a reason that these standard Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky are coming around and around and again, and it's the same reason that Shakespeare plays come around again and again on stage or in the movies and television, whatever you want, because these great masterpieces of art display some deeper meaning than just the surface music.

They they talk about issues that have a meaning to all of us.

They talk about love and hate, and they talk about struggle, and they talk about the afterlife, and they talk about your personal emotional experiences.

They are.

They are transcending the little black dots on paper and the instrumental realization.

They talk about life.

And we need that, especially when the music that we play talks about ideals of life that we cannot see and cannot realize in every day.

We cannot always be the best we want to be.

We have a schedule.

We have to get up at 8:00 in the morning, go to work.

We have to make money, feed our children.

All of that.

Life is difficult.

And when you hear you mentioned that Beethoven nine or Shostakovich five, that tells you what we could be where our human spirit and our human, our human potential can get us in the best of times.

The optimism that is in the music, the feeling that when you have a good performance of that, you come out and say, yeah, tomorrow I start my life anew and I will start something new.

I will be more optimistic.

Or you really feel refreshed and renewed after these kind of performances, as you do after a great Shakespeare play, or going to a gallery and seeing a wonderful Picasso or Cezanne painting and those kinds of pieces of art are very important to our lives.

They're like bread and water for our lives.

>> And that's not to say, by the way, that the rest of the calendar, with the newer voices or the voices and, and the creators who maybe we are less familiar with aren't valuable.

Of course they are.

It's a really diverse set of offerings.

We're going to go through it in just a moment here.

Jeff Tyzik, can you describe what your sort of mentality is as you think about a season and all the elements you want to fit together?

There?

>> Well, I can't accomplish that in one season.

So I think of multiple seasons of going for that goal.

And I think it's important to have a diverse program which encompasses all kinds of music.

I mean, of course, we're going to do rock and we're going to do pop and we're going to do Latin music and gospel music and film scores and, and all of that.

But, you know, we have a fair amount of classical music.

If the program is appropriate for it.

I keep trying to find a compelling reason to bring people into the Eastman Theater.

And I think between music director Andreas and, what I'm trying to do, I think we're, we're covering the spectrum of symphonic music that people hopefully will find compelling.

And then, of course, all of our marketing programs, it's not just about listing something and sending out a brochure, but targeting through videos and all other aspects of media to make people aware of what they can expect if they come to an experience in the theater.

And then on the classical series, of course, you know, there are pre-concert lectures, which again, for the for somebody new who has heard maybe of Shostakovich and, and but maybe they're going to see, you know, a concert with an interesting instrument, which I looked at the classical series.

There's some pretty cool things on there.

I'm sure Andreas will talk about it.

So I don't want to say what it is, but you know, a reason to find something very interesting in those programs.

And actually, on the pops, I started, I think four years ago doing some pre-concert talks about the music with the artists and the music.

And again, just to make it an experience that when somebody walks out the door, they just don't say, hey, wow, that was really good music there.

Wow.

That was a really interesting I really learned some things about music I never thought before.

I saw something I didn't expect to see.

And then the actual kinetic energy of the audience, the conductor and the orchestra together creating this excitement and this very spiritual moment in a concert hall that you can't get any other way.

those are the kinds of experiences we're trying to bring to the theater.

So everything we do is geared towards that end of creating an experience that you cannot get any other way except by sitting in that room.

>> Well, I'm going to ask Mike Cidoni because I've been waiting to work with Mike forever here.

Even though we kind of overlapped way back in the day when I first got to Rochester.

Mike is going to be my copilot.

We're going to work through this series.

We can't.

I don't think we can talk in depth about every little part of it, but Mike's going to help direct for both Andreas and Jeff to tell you about some of the highlights as we work through this season.

And again, if you want to learn more.

PBS.org and Mike, as we get started here, this is a big day for you guys rolling this out here.

can you want to grab the reins with me and go ahead?

>> Sure.

so so everything that you and Andreas and Jeff have discussed today is lovely.

It is.

We are charged the RPO and other great arts groups in Rochester to carry on and make sure that the classics are preserved, respected and that they are available and accessible to old and young.

poor and rich.

we work very hard in ways that actually WXXI does as well in terms of education.

and the prime example, the only reason I bring this up is that you know, we're not talking about your vision of, you know, stuffy rich people in tuxedos going to every show.

And the greatest example starts with our Phil's special.

and I know Andreas will have a lot to say to this, but we kick off the season in a way that's truly representative of what the RPO is.

we are returning to the fringe.

it is going to be a concert with one of my favorite instruments, the theremin.

and maestro, why are you starting your series this way?

>> Yeah, yeah, we start this season not with a subscription concert, but at the fringe.

And I'm very happy about that because we haven't been back there in a while.

So we came up with a very cool program that reminded me a little bit of when we had to come up with the program for the Eclipse Festival, that we, or the eclipse show that we did, which was such a huge success.

So we kind of put a space program together.

We start with a piece by Mason Bates, which we've actually played before, and it's full orchestra, but electronics as well.

And the electronics kind of mimic the sounds, the moving sounds, the docking sounds and so forth of a spaceship.

And then I'm very, very excited that we finally get my fellow German, Carolina Eike, who is like the world's best theremin player.

Now, I'm sure many of your listeners don't know what a theremin is, so let me explain it very briefly.

It's one of the earliest electronic instruments ever.

It looks like a, pumpkin with two antennas, basically.

And the player manipulates both antennas with their both hands.

And depending on how close the hands are to the antenna, the sound gets louder, softer, higher, or lower, and it can mix all sounds of kind of electronic sounds.

You've all heard it in science fiction movies.

Whenever in Star Trek or Star Wars, the music goes, who?

That's the theremin.

And somebody wrote an incredible concerto for orchestra and that instrument for it.

And this wonderful young lady plays it so well.

It's a visual and acoustic feat that you don't want to miss.

And then after the intermission, we play one of John Adams's earliest pieces, actually, the piece that put John Adams on the map back then, when we still called it minimal music.

I think that term has gone away, but we know John Adams is probably the greatest living American composer right now.

Happens to be his 80th birthday in the fall of that year.

So we play his grand piano, grand piano music.

It's called.

It's a full orchestra, two pianos and three singers.

And it's typical John Adams.

It's typical, chord structures and scales up and down and arpeggios and so very easy to listen to.

Very fun to tap your toes to.

So I think it's a very good cross-section of what's around in 2020s and 21st century music.

And as I say, it's a space program at the fringe.

>> Saturday, September 19th, 7:30 p.m., Mike Cidoni.

We just heard the maestro impersonate the theremin here.

That's what we came for.

Exactly.

What a.

>> Redwood fan.

>> What a great.

>> Way to do a fringe.

What an awesome decision for fringe, I love it.

okay, so that's really.

But your official opening night is a week later and Mike, you and maestro, you want to take us through that?

>> Yeah.

We start with our, our full series, the first concert of the Philharmonic series with a commission, a piece that we have been asked to write.

Michael Torquay.

Michael is a good old friend and has been composing for many, many years.

He spent many years to work for the Disney Corporation, writing all sorts of music for movies and for the parks, actually.

But he's also written some great symphonic music.

And this is a new piece that he writes for us to begin the season, and also to tip the hat to the fact that it's the 250th anniversary of the United States that we want to celebrate in that season.

it goes on with the Violin Concerto by John Adams.

again, it's his 80th birthday, and we have the world's foremost interpreter of that great piece, which is Leila Josefowicz, who plays that piece all over the world.

And she will play it here with us at the Rochester Philharmonic.

And to continue my American tip to the hat of the anniversary is, of course, the New World Symphony by Dvorak.

>> Okay.

And that's on the one.

Boy, I gotta bounce back here.

Saturday, September 26th.

for official opening night.

We should also think at this point, the pops opening night is just a little bit later.

That is Friday, October 16th.

If I could have Jeff Tyzik to take us through your plans for the opener with the music of Aretha Franklin.

Jeff.

>> Sure.

Shelia is a protege of Stevie Wonder, and she's a wonderful vocalist.

And this is a concert that she first performed in London in Royal Albert Hall.

And we got wind of this and it's a great material and we're honoring the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin.

So we're going to have a lot of Aretha's hits and these beautiful arrangements by these European arrangers.

I'm kind of jealous a little bit that they're so good and beautiful.

So I'm really looking forward to doing that concert.

>> Mike Cidoni, the floor is yours here.

Take us through the next part here.

>> So.

>> one thing I definitely feel obligated to add here is, you know, when you hear.

Well, you know, the RPO is, you know, doing a tribute act here.

That's not what this is all about.

I mean, one of the most exciting things that's happening that isn't either a pops or or a Phil's event is, and I, I stress the accessibility and our outreach to just all people.

I mean, one of our hottest selling tickets right now is, you know, is a top level LED Zeppelin tribute act with the 100 piece Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

granted, LED Zeppelin's getting up there, but but the music isn't.

but when we talk about Aretha, when we talk about others that are coming down the pike, it's a lot of beautiful tributes.

And, you know, Jeff has been around just as Andreas has literally around the world and has connected in some cases, teamed up regularly with the best of the best of these people.

This isn't like going to Vegas and seeing a seeing a tribute act.

>> No offense to that.

It's just not that.

>> No, this isn't about gambling.

you never know.

But, Jeff, schedule is really exciting this year, and so I'm going to throw a wrench into this the way this is rolling out because, as you know, as a former AP newsman myself you don't bury the lead.

and Jeff, with due respect to going out of order here one of the leads here is that Jeff Tyzik is putting together something that actually gets me misty when I even talk about it.

And his pop series finale is one of the most wild almost impossible to capsulize tributes to his longtime colleague.

And we're talking Jeff was, you know, deeply involved in Chuck Mangione's feel so good and the Fun and Games album, which gave us million selling Give It All You got.

Jeff was there, Jeff was playing.

Jeff was co arranging.

He was co-producing records.

When when Chuck was in his prime.

I cannot think of a single better person to be at the baton to be in control of the selections.

And I think that when rochesterians, all across the board and musically and demographically hear about what he has in store for this closing it's going to be crazy.

And so I suggest that perhaps you talk to Jeff about his season closer.

Sorry for throwing a wrench into your plan.

>> We don't have to go in perfect chronological order.

I understand Mike is clearly excited and for good reason.

And this is Friday and Saturday, May 21st and 22 of 2027.

Jumping ahead in the calendar.

But Jeff, take us through those evenings.

What you got planned.

>> Well, by the way, your listeners won't be able to see this, but the people who are tuning in will.

And I wanted to show you this.

>> Oh, wow.

>> If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it here.

Wow.

Yeah.

>> Little Jeff Tyzik.

>> Well, it's, you know, that's my, my favorite photo of Chuck and me.

Yeah, I knew Chuck since I was a student at Eastman and and then connected with him after I graduated and I worked with him until roughly 1982. his music is, is pretty incredible.

And I was so moved by it as a student when I went to his friends and Love concert because he used a symphony orchestra in ways that nobody had thought of before.

I mean, the concert had jazz, it had rock, it had pop, it had folk music, it had Spanish guitar music.

I mean, it was really a unique and incredible concert.

And in some ways changed my trajectory for the rest of my life and how I thought about using a symphony orchestra is pretty much responsible for how I work with orchestras today.

But that said when, you know, Chuck passed, you know, I just started having this feeling, feeling compelled to do this celebration of him and his music here in Rochester.

So I went to the family, I talked to Josephine, his sister, who I've known for so many years, and I just said, I really want to do this with the RPO, the RPO.

His first success, the Friends in Love album or those early albums were with the RPO, and we did a recreation of Friends in Love about 15 years ago with the RPO.

People will remember that and I just said we need to do this celebration.

And I feel like I'm the one to do it only because I spent time so many years with him during the period when he created this repertoire.

And I know how it goes.

I know what it should be.

And I think people will love this.

The orchestra will love it.

Everybody's going to love it.

It's going to be a great celebration.

So we're going to do about, I would say maybe 75 minutes of his orchestra pieces.

We're going to have a very short first half.

I just recently composed a jazz concerto for soprano sax and orchestra, and we're going to play that premiere, that version on the first half, very short first half, maybe 25, 30 minutes, take a break and come back and it's all Mangione.

And I've been working on putting his music together.

It's it's in a little bit of rough shape.

So I've been just getting the music together and listening again, and it's kind of blown my mind how much he influenced me and my own writing.

So it's been, it's been quite a process.

And and it's been a little eerie because as I'm in the room working on things and I'm listening to him, I'm just remembering the moments when I was in the room with him.

And as I've been doing this, I've been feeling like he's in the room with me.

So it's been, it's been you know, quite a personal journey to put this together.

But I think it's a way he's an icon.

He's, he's one of the most creative jazz artists in history of, of this, you know, past century.

And I think it's, it's only right that we give him this tribute and we're going to do it up.

>> If I could just just make a quick mention here because it would be wrong, I believe, to fail to acknowledge the significance of WXXI to the Friends in Love concert.

this was a very big deal here.

I don't think anybody really realized how big it was going to happen, that he was going to end up on the Billboard charts.

And, you know, this was a fairly young guy just out of school.

but WXXI broadcasted and has in its archives the original, I believe it's one inch or three quarters videotape.

and if it had not been for WXXI app recording that album on Mercury, which was, which was iconic for him and started the whole million selling thing would never have happened.

And so we've been, we've been talking with your people and I'm I'm certain that this will is more likely than not to become yet another thing that brings the RPO and this magnificent media conglomerate together.

>> No, it's fantastic.

>> And your people, when we just mentioned it, get almost this excited about it.

I was ten years old when I saw that concert, and Jeff couldn't have been all that much older.

The first one.

>> In the 1970s.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, and for this has been a hard few years in our community.

We lost bat McGrath.

We lost Chuck.

And there are people who were on that stage.

And the way I think about it, Jeff, is I'm not a rochesterians.

until 2003.

And now I'm a proud rochesterians.

But hearing about that concert and the way people talk about it, I think 100,000 people claim they were there.

And now you got a chance, I think, to to keep the vibe and the love alive for new generations.

And I think that is tremendously valuable, to say nothing of the quality of the music.

So what an awesome way to, to close the season.

And I think Mike was right to jump right to that.

So here's what we're going to do after we take the only break of the hour, we're going to fly through the second half hour.

Mike Cidoni is going to help guide us through with Andreas Delfs Jeff Tyzik as we talk about the fills and the pops and the new season, which is rolling out today right here, they're going to tell you a lot more about what is coming your way and what they've got planned on the other side of this break.

I'm Evan Dawson Thursday on the next Connections.

Gen Z is drinking a lot less than previous generations, but sobriety remains a big problem overall in this country, and a new show at Blackfriars Theater explores some of these themes.

We'll talk about it in our first hour, in our second hour, the Landmark Society has their new list of five landmarks to revive.

We'll reveal the list on Thursday.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Fred Maxik, now part of with M, a national advisory and public accounting firm.

The local team continues its decades long commitment to serving Western New York with advisory, tax and assurance services.

More.

At witham.com.

And Mary Cariola, center supporting residents to become active members of the community.

From developing life skills to gaining independence, Mary Cariola, center transforming lives of people with disabilities.

More online at.

Mary Cariola..org.

>> I blame the host.

I think I screwed up the T's for tomorrow.

Just briefly tomorrow on this program, we're going to be talking about women's heart health in our first hour and then in our second hour, we're welcoming a new figure in Rochester to the scene, talking about A.I.

And we're really looking forward to that conversation.

So a lot to share with you tomorrow here today, we're talking about the POS new season, the Philharmonic, the Pops, and Mike Cidoni.

Where are we going next?

Here.

>> Okay just one thing very quickly.

So this information is going to be hard to come by in this comprehensive way that this brochure that only honestly a few hundred people has seen.

however, the entire schedule is going to live because we do adore this place.

And I'm, we try to put our money where our mouth is.

I'm frantically posting every single event on the city entertainment calendar.

All right.

it's a long process.

I think I'm going to be up very late.

I'd hope to get it done last night, but we were, we had a few different, but literally if you go to the city magazine website you're going to have access to it that nobody else has for a few days and you'll really be able to sort of shop around a little bit.

we have to.

Absolutely.

And you can tell that I, it's easy to sell things that you love and maybe I'm indiscriminate because I do love a lot, but one of the big, big thrills of this new season on the fill side is something that is brand new and is the incredible creation of Meister Delfs.

It is our first ever piano festival.

I've seen others configured in other ways.

This is downright thrilling.

And maestro I'm eager to hear about the background of this and and your excitement about it.

>> Well, it started with the same premise that this year's Beethoven Festival started with.

We had two weeks back to back, and we thought, if we have the audience for two weeks back to back, we're going to offer them a lot.

So as we did in the fall, we offered them four different programs with all the great Beethoven symphonies in two weeks.

And as we know that piano concerti are among the most popular pieces for our audience, we do something similar in two consecutive weeks.

In October of this year, and that will be our piano festival, and it will be the formula that we have.

Four of the greatest pianists in the world descending on Rochester, playing four of the greatest piano concerti in the world, and we combined them with a short but significant piece for orchestra by the same composer.

And instead of an overture, which normally the orchestra plays, the pianist of that program will play a piano solo.

So, for example the great Tchaikovsky Prize winner, Olga Kern, who has been here many, many times, will start the concert with a 20 minute solo recital of Rachmaninoff's greatest Piano works.

Then I will come out and conduct a piano orchestral work by Rachmaninoff, the Isle of the dead, and then we end the program with the ever so popular Third Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff.

At that same week.

Just two days later, another Tchaikovsky Prize winner, Barry Douglas, will come and he will play selections from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons.

Then I will do the orchestra piece.

Francesca da Rimini, and after the intermission we play what else?

Tchaikovsky's first Piano Concerto.

probably the most popular concerto in the world.

And we continue with that formally with that formula.

Just the week after that.

And it will be Beethoven.

Jonathan Biss, who was with us last season, did such a wonderful job on the Second Concerto, will play one of the short Beethoven piano sonatas, followed by me doing one of the Beethoven symphonies, which is number eight.

And then after intermission, we will play together the Emperor Concerto, and two days later the eminent Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin will come and play some Brahms piano music.

And I will come out and conduct some Brahms orchestra music, in this case, the Haydn Variations.

And after intermission, we do the wonderful Second Piano Concerto by Johannes Brahms.

So that's going to be two weeks full of great pianists, full of great piano music and concerti, and some orchestral work by the same composer as well.

That's our piano festival.

>> So what's really cool about this and why you don't see this on most symphonies programming is because it's tough.

It is really hard on the orchestra.

It's really tough on the guest soloists, and it is particularly tough on the conductor.

and it requires in order to pull this off the highest degree of trust and normally a symphony will perform the same program over one weekend.

It is no small feat to do two completely different complicated programs on one weekend and then do it again.

and it was a real thrill to see Andreas with the Beethoven Festival and the Beethoven guy, but more importantly, to see his almost telepathic connection and also the, the passion that he shares with with this orchestra.

It's, it's crazy.

And Andreas, I hope you've taught me well about this.

>> Yeah.

I think you make it a little bit too complicated sounding for us.

It's a joy because you know, to have we get always inspired by our guests and to have Olga, Karen, Barry, Douglas, Jonathan Biss and Marc-André Hamelin.

Within two weeks, the orchestra will be on fire because they will be so inspired to collaborate with these great, great.

As I said before, the great.

Some of the greatest pianists in the world and some of the greatest repertory we.

Yes, we have played the Emperor Concerto many times, and yes, we have played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto many times.

But to do it in the time schedule that you just mentioned with these artists as partners, and then maybe even to to sneak in and listen to the first half where they play some solo pieces by the same composer.

I think this should be as much a joy for the orchestra and me as it hopefully is for the audience.

>> Well, again.

>> We'll give.

>> You that.

Yeah.

>> I beg to differ just slightly because the connection Andreas and Jeff have incredible connectivity with these musicians.

but this is, this is quite it's quite a lift as.

And it's.

>> A. joy uplifting, a joyful lift.

>> It sounds.

>> Like okay, Mike.

Next up.

>> I think we should, we should go back to pops because it's, it's really an exciting it's exciting season.

the, there's a lot of tributes, but there's a lot of film.

and Jeff, I don't want to take you into places you don't want to necessarily go, but I'm hoping you can sort of pick at least one of your favorite things you're going to be doing.

one of the things you predict may be your greatest hit here beyond Mangione, because there's a lot.

>> Well, I'm not going to go there.

I'm just going to tell you very quickly about everything.

just imagine on the same season, okay, you got Aretha Franklin, you got Billy Joel, you've got the Beatles, you've got southern rock.

We're talking, you know, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

now, I haven't arranged those concerts yet.

So you know, the southern rock and the Billy Joel.

But it's great music.

I'm going to be inspired.

Now when we go to John Williams a lot of much like Andreas looking to you know, celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country.

Well, John Williams scored a lot of films about, you know, things that made our country what it is.

We can go back to The Patriot, which is about the Revolutionary War or the march from 1941 or Midway March.

Or we can talk about Saving Private Ryan, and we're looking at all that material.

So on one half of the concert, you're going to hear some great you know, Williams classics and on the other half are going to be these kind of patriotic oriented pieces that he wrote, which are phenomenal.

and then wickedly Broadway you know, beauty and the beast.

And we have Evan Royster coming to conduct and Evan toured with wicked for three years.

He's an amazing young conductor and he's going to have fun with that.

of course, we're going to show Raiders of the Lost Ark and our fabulous orchestra is going to sit there doing in the theater what this orchestra was first created to do.

The Easement Theater was a theater house.

George.

You know, Eastman had a huge screen up there.

The orchestra played to silent movies.

And while they're working on one silent movie, you know, performances a day, they're getting the music ready and rehearsing for the one that come the week after.

So you know, once again, the orchestra will be on stage performing to that film.

And then, of course, the gala Holiday pops is always incredibly special.

And to have this young choir of, of young vocalists from 37 different schools in our seven county area is so inspiring.

And it's funny, last year, we just passed, it was I thought it was the best ever.

And I said that on stage.

And this one young girl in the choir who's been in a couple of years walked up.

She goes, well, you say that every year.

And I said, well, it's getting better every year.

But it's an amazing experience.

it's so heartwarming.

And some people, in addition to the, the incredible programs that Andreas puts on stage and, you know, the programs I put on stage, some people in Rochester only come to the holiday Pops, and I'm thrilled that they come.

So that's kind of a big event for us.

We, of course, do five performances.

So that's pretty much you know, a capsulated view of our entire season.

And I stand by it.

I'm proud of it.

And I think we're going to reach a lot of people between our symphonic programs, our specials, our kids programs, what we bring to Rochester is really incredible.

And most people don't get the whole picture, but it's all the things we do on stage and all the things we do off stage.

>> so it makes a, it's a logical segue to go from what Jeff has discussed, which is essentially what I could never do and why I needed editors.

he's, he's given his entire 700 concert season in less than five minutes.

but he discussed the significance of film, the significance of George Eastman's mission.

And he was an interesting character, but it was really incredibly noble mission, which was to bring music to a city where this kind of music couldn't have it.

We were in industrial town when it, when Eastman Theater went up and, and that happens a lot.

Jeff talked about film for me, one of the most exciting pieces here that Andreas in his films calendar has placed is Rochester's own Jeff Beal.

producing and having written a brand new underscore for Fritz Lang's legendary 1927 silent film Metropolis.

and so those of my generation watched Metropolis for other reasons.

the 70s and then it was restored by the producer writer Giorgio Moroder, who was Donna Summer's guiding light.

And, he did the underscore for Midnight Express.

and thanks to him spending millions and millions of dollars, he found this amazing film and he, the Nazis tried to just erase the film.

They burned every print.

And Moroder went to Australia and Alaska.

It was crazy the way that he was able to piece together a more comprehensive, cohesive version of this.

Jeff is premiering the score for Metropolis, I believe, in Prague in the next week or so.

but this is going to be a big deal for audiences.

I think of all ages.

And Andreas, I'm hoping you can you can talk a little bit about this.

The movie is is very special to me.

Maybe because I'm half German.

and and this, this new underscore is, I think, going to be something extraordinary.

>> Yeah.

I mean, it's a great, great movie and several scores exist for this movie.

It's many composers have started to write a score for Metropolis because it's such an everlasting, fantastic movie.

but the idea to put this on the Philharmonic schedule came because we have another festival, we have another two weeks back to back.

And I, when Jeff was just talking, I was reminded that's actually where our worlds connect.

film music as we know it and as we love it, you know, the, the great symphonic film music that started with the, Austrian German emigres at the beginning of the, of the Second World War and then found their absolute pinnacle in John Williams.

They were all inspired by symphonic music of the great masters, by the music of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky.

And that's basically where every movie composer that works today learned their craft.

So we put two weeks together where these worlds connect.

the is the Phil's concert in February of next year will be a classical movie score.

Max Steiner, Gone with the wind.

then the symphonic score by a composer who wrote a lot of movie music in the 30s and 40s, and that is Korngold, Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

He wrote this wonderful violin concerto, which is a staple of the repertory, which we will perform.

Then I do something that people will be surprised because they don't know what the connection to movies is.

And that's the suite of Richard Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier.

And there's two reasons why we do that.

First of all, many, many film composers, my my admired and beloved John Williams among them learned a lot.

And I make air quotes right now.

Learned a lot.

You could also say stole a little bit from Richard Strauss.

He's kind of the grandfather of the sound that you hear in a symphonic movie score, but this particular one is a suite that Strauss made because his opera was so successful that they decided to make a silent movie out of it.

Now, that sounds really weird.

A silent movie made out of an opera.

But he did it, and he wrote a special score that was supposed to go along with that movie with the highlights and the best tunes from the opera that we will perform in that concert.

And then we end with something that I think now, by now is considered symphonic music as much as movie music.

And that's one of John Williams great, great scores.

This one is from E.T.

the Extra-Terrestrial, and I have long thought about.

Why not put that in a regular subscription concert?

Is it is as good as any symphonic piece that I know by, let's say, Rachmaninoff.

Even Richard Strauss, the shorter pieces by Strauss Till Eulenspiegel and so forth are short, brilliantly orchestrated showpieces.

And that's what John Williams does, too.

So this is the program that kind of introduces the week after, which is my friend Jeff Beale, who is a very well known movie and television composer.

He also runs the program for young composers at Eastman.

And he has done a lot of, lot of music for movies and, and television.

You all probably know his music for the TV show.

>> House of.

>> Cards, House of cards.

Thank you very much for prompting me.

>> I was.

>> A big fan.

It feels like a different era in American politics, I must say.

>> But about a decade.

>> Like a long time.

>> Ago.

>> Actually, it was just ten years ago.

So Phil, Jeff is a real specialist in this field and I can't wait to hear his new score for one of my favorite movies, Metropolis.

And first, where you will hear it in America with the Rochester Philharmonic in our two week film inspired special of a little festival.

>> It was so much fun.

I worked in Hollywood for about 25 years and covered the Emmys every year.

And it was so great to run into Beale, who has a number of Emmys, and I believe Grammy's.

and and to talk to him and he'd be like, I think I know who you are.

And he's like, nobody knows who I am.

You know, I'm the guy with the stick.

and I'm a big movie freak.

Obviously Jeff is, but the real exciting thing is to understand both Jeff and Andrea's mad passion for, for not only movie music, but movies.

they certainly can outtalk me on the subject.

It's quite extraordinary.

And, and there's a real there's a higher than usual presence of cinematic symphonic music here.

>> And what a story with Metropolis, the story of the film in general.

I appreciate that because that's a history that is new to me and will be new to a lot of your fans this season.

next season, I'd say we're talking about 2026, 2027 season with the RPO.

Oh my gosh, Mike Cidoni.

We got like six minutes left here.

So what what have we not talked about that you need to at least mention here.

And then I want to ask Jeff Tyzik something.

>> So I would definitely let Andreas pick perhaps the last of his greatest hits and we'll be ignoring many.

But I promised you all who are listening, we're going to get that information to you.

If I've got to sit up all night on the City City Magazine website.

>> Well, two of the more unusual things we do is you all know Peer Gynt.

You all know the tunes from the Hall of the Mountain King and The morning Melody.

That's one of top shelf classical pieces.

But you don't know that there's much, much more to it.

So we do the Complete Peer Gynt in a narrated version, and we got my, my good old friend John de Lancie, who was with us a few times before of Star Trek fame, to do the narration.

That's something I very much look forward to.

And the final concert of the season.

Again, I look very much forward to because another old friend who I've not seen in many years legendary jazz pianist Makoto Otani, who also will appear at the Rochester Jazz Festival, will do something with me that we've done many years ago in Tokyo, actually, and we were on tour with that in Japan, and that is his version of Rhapsody in Blue, which let me say, has about 15 or 20% of the original.

And the other 75 or 80% is Makoto improvising over themes from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

It's absolutely fabulous, and it's a feat for orchestra and pianist.

So I'm very glad that we have this great, great artist to finish the season with.

Last word.

Don't forget our Nats series, the the series at Nazareth College, where we play lighter classical music and and novelties.

And I say that because that's always sold out.

So if you want tickets for that series, you have to wake up early.

>> Jeff, I'm hoping you can expound just a little bit on one of the shows in your series for next year that I'm just, I had practically exploded when I saw you were going to do it.

but Jeff mentioned it before.

and to think that he's going to be doing the Allman Brothers and CCR and Lynyrd Skynyrd with the RPO in Kodak Hall I think that maybe Eastman's head will explode when you start rehearsing it.

Talk to us about that particular show because it's, it's a standout.

Certainly for me.

>> Well actually, Jamie my co-producer and manager and daughter, I will say she's somebody I work with.

She has her own agency and she promotes 27 different concerts that we've done together and other things.

She came to me with that idea and my first thought was like, how is this going to work?

And then I listened to the music and I felt there were these interesting motifs in the music, these interesting melodies, these interesting ideas that could work with a symphony orchestra if it's correctly arranged.

And so I'm excited about giving that a try.

And we're going to premiere it.

And we, one of the things I love about the way when we do these pops concerts, whether it's Billy Joel or the southern Rock or whatever, we don't like, put the band out in front and the row of shields, and then the orchestra is like in the next county behind that, I integrate the and into the center of the orchestra.

So we create really a symphonic rock orchestra.

And that means the musicians in the band know that they're playing with a symphony, and they have to sort of acclimate to playing at the volume level and, and really interacting with the orchestra.

And it creates just these amazing experiences.

I just last week I was in Detroit doing our Laurel Canyon concert that we premiered this year.

And also I was the week before I was in Toronto doing the Beatles concert that we've done before.

So, you know, getting the orchestra to work together is great.

And I just want to just quickly say, years ago, I met with Doug Lowry, who was the dean of the Eastman School, and he said, you know, someday we're not going to have all these labels.

And I know in order to reach people, we have to have the classical series, and we have to have the pops and all that.

That's kind of the theme or the way marketing is done.

But if you look at the programs Andreas is doing and how he's doing, you know, symphonic film, music, and, and sometimes when we've had groups like True Vertigo and we're doing classical, there's no barriers, there's no labels, there's no boundaries.

We just want to reach everybody.

And that's what we do through our programs.

We're just an orchestra that plays incredible music, and it has to be labeled for sales.

But we play everything.

We reach everybody.

That's what we're about.

>> Well.

>> Well said.

And as we close here, Peter from Geneva writes and say, hi, Evan, I'm looking for the Mangione concert dates and tickets.

So people are listening one more time.

Mike Cidoni give them the.

>> Address to look them up.

Why don't I give them the, the other dates that that we should share?

So to your listener keep an eye on city magazine's calendar.

I can only type so quickly.

but we, we're going to have the whole schedule up there.

>> Tonight.

Tomorrow?

>> Yeah, 4 a.m., 4 a.m.

tomorrow.

But I promise it'll get up there.

>> The dates Friday, May 21st, and Saturday, May 22nd of next year.

>> Okay.

And so, but Rochester City Magazine's website is going to have all that information exclusively.

Yep, yes.

>> After I ingest a lot of coffee.

so, so just to let everybody know how this works so you can get on with your business.

>> You got about 30s.

>> To do it.

if you are current.

2526 RPO subscriber in your mailbox a hard copy of our brochures there.

And you are now ready to renew for next season and after the show, if you don't want to.

Well, call me.

I'll convince you.

New subscribers those who do not have subscriptions for this year.

may start buying subscriptions.

Tuesday, March 31st at 10:00, and then single tickets.

you're not a subscriber.

You just want to see five great shows.

that's 10 a.m., Thursday, July 30th, and all the info honestly will be at the City Magazine website.

>> Thanks, guys.

Thank you maestro.

Thank you.

Jeff Tyzik.

Thank you.

Mike Cidoni.

We'll be back with you tomorrow.

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