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$20-$40 ($10 student/youth)

Mei-Ann Chen, music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, makes her NOI+F conducting debut for an evening of works rich with concept and complexity. We begin with the "sturm und drang" (storm and stress) of Grammy-nominated contemporary composer Anna Clyne's boisterous Restless Oceans, a natural lead-in to Claude Debussy's symphonic masterpiece La mer ("The sea"). One of the most influential and regularly performed works of the contemporary era, the frolicking sway and spontaneous tumult of La mer found its inspiration in French and Japanese visual art of the late 19th Century, and from the peaks and crashes of Debussy's own intensely stormy personal life. The second half begins with Outburst, an exuberant and declamatory introduction from composer Michael Abels that ushers in Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. The 1943 Concerto was Bartók's final completed work and likely his best known. A still-audible openness to the influence of popular music and its resounding clarity of narrative have made the concerto a timeless point of access for orchestral newcomers.

Pre-concert lecture at 6:30pm in the Grand Pavillion. More information: https://theclarice.umd.edu/events/2024/noif-spark-lounge-3

About Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike.

https://www.meiannchen.com/