WWU Symphony Orchestra with Mikhail Voskresensky
As part of his 90th birthday tour, acclaimed Russian pianist Mikhail Voskresensky returns to WWU to join the Western Symphony Orchestra for its first concert of 2025-26, performing Mozart’s stormy Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466.
Among the most celebrated artists and teachers of his generation, Voskresensky immigrated to the United States in 2022—at the age of 87—to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Also on the program is music from another Russian expatriate: Igor Stravinsky. His 1928 ballet “Le baiser de la fée” (The Fairy’s Kiss) is based on the Hans Christian Anderson story “The Ice-Maiden,” and takes as its musical source material dozens of obscure piano and vocal works by yet another Russian master, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Opening the evening is the vibrant “Huapango” by José Pablo Moncayo. Beloved in Mexico, where it is known ubiquitously as the “Huapango de Moncayo,” the piece is a brilliant orchestral recasting of the traditional son jarocho music of Veracruz.
