Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Wei Luo, piano 

BERNSTEIN: Overture to Candide 
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 1 

Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” newly named Music Director of the Virginia Symphony Eric Jacobsen makes his Omaha Symphony debut leading a program filled with fun and delight.

First is the jaunty and clown-like concert overture from Bernstein’s neo-classical operetta based on Voltaire’s satirical novella, Candide. Next is Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto, a work that encapsulates the composer’s philosophy that a concerto should be “lighthearted and brilliant,” its joie de vivre palpable. Pianist Wei Luo, an artist the San Francisco Chronicle calls “destined for stardom,” makes her Omaha Symphony debut.  Finally, the program ends with one of Tchaikovsky’s less-performed symphonies, his first—a playful romp he nicknamed “Winter Daydreams.”