Friday Coffee Dress: Barber’s Adagio and Elgar’s Enigma

Observe a working rehearsal as the musicians and conductor put the finishing touches on the weekend’s concert program. Doors open at 9AM, and free coffee and donuts are included in the price of your ticket (while supplies last)! New this year: enjoy the opportunity to purchase a mimosa or Bloody Mary from the Ohio Theatre bar.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Jasmine Choi, flute 

Jimmy López: Perú Negro
Nielsen: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (“Enigma Variations”) 

Guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, former music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, opens this concert with Perú Negro, a piece he commissioned from star composer Jimmy López that is an exciting homage to Afro-Peruvian music. Virtuoso flautist Jasmine Choi, with a tone “glowing like gold [that] resonates like pearls” (Nikkei Daily Newspaper) performs the great Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto before the Columbus Symphony ends the evening with two popular 20th-century works: Samuel Barber’s heart-rending Adagio for Strings has become synonymous with moments of national reflection and catharsis, while Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” is a musical cryptogram depicting the composer’s inner circle, including the elegantly moving “Nimrod.”