Yonkers Philharonic Family Concert – Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue

What do you get when you combine a boy from Yonkers, who’s a classically trained violist, raised with the HipHop beats of the 70’s and 80’s and the Yonkers Philharmonic: our new Music Director, Ariel Rudiakov.  His eclectic love of music shines through our Family Friendly concert: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue presented on October 15, 2023 at 3:00 pm at Saunders Trade and Technical High School, Yonkers.

Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 puts emotion front and center. In Morning Mood evokes a Moroccan desert sunrise. Åse’s Death depicts the tragedy of losing a mother. Anitra’s Dance will seduce you right along with Gynt.  The Hall of the Mountain King fills the auditorium with the noises of the trolls, goblins, and gnomes who inhabit the dark underground cavern. 

Mozart’s 40^th Symphony is one of his best-known works and most beloved.  Operatic in nature, Mozart’s mastery of his art form is on full display with contrasts of dynamics, pacing and rhythm.   

A protégé of Elgar, British composer and conductor Samual Coleridge Taylor overcame prejudice against his mixed-race heritage to become enormously popular during his lifetime. His Ballade is music of drama and heart, beginning and ending in urgency with a respite in the middle. 

Bohemian Rhapsody, the song by the British rock band Queen, is a six-minute suite, consisting of several sections without a chorus: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda.  Add in an electric viola soloist, our very own Music Director, and you have the ending to a concert your family and you won’t forget.