Duration of performance: approx. 50 minutes (no intermission)

FLORENCE PRICE Violin Concerto No. 2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 8

JESSICA HUNG violin
NEAL GITTLEMAN artistic director and conductor
DAYTON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra is thrilled to be back on stage in the Schuster Center with a live audience for their first Masterworks Concert of the New Year! The concert opens with Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Price once wrote in a letter to conductor Serge Koussevitzky, “To begin with I have two handicaps – those of sex and race. I am a woman; and I have some Negro blood in my veins,” adding “I would like to be judged on merit alone.” (www.npr.com) Merit, indeed, as her talent sparkles in this beautiful work. Concertmaster Jessica Hung takes center stage to perform Price’s composition. Then, continuing our two-year celebration of the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the DPO performs his Symphony No. 8, a short, spirited work composed between two much more famous symphonies, yet a definite force in its own right that celebrates the composer’s playful side. The DPO offers two live in-theatre performances of this concert (with no intermission) for those who cannot wait to be back in the Schuster Center to see and hear the DPO in person, as well as a live-stream option for those who prefer to view the performance from the comfort of home.