Music

Brazilian Voices, the South Florida-based, highly awarded vocal group noted for its musical excellence in Jazz, Bossa Nova, Samba and Pop, returns to Aventura to present Amazonas. A special selection of works highlighting the group's noted strengths: powerful interpretation, rich harmonies and a passionate approach. There is a delightful fluidity and warmth to their singing in a poetic tribute to the rain forest.

An exciting mix of glamour, class and goose-bumps-inducing vocals honoring the iconic hits of the biggest Divas! Celebrating four decades of iconic Diva hits, DIVAS3 showcases three female singers with powerhouse voices performing the biggest hits of the greatest Divas in music history. This vibrant show features hits from the 60s through the 90s with classics by Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Cher, Dolly Parton, Donna Summer and many, many more! As a trio, they are incredible, as soloists, they have all starred in shows on the Las Vegas Strip.

From Australia to Hollywood, Andrew Bain has taken the world by storm as Principal Horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and soloist on the latest Star Wars soundtracks. In his NWS debut and the final chamber music concert of the season, Bain joins NWS Fellows for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s delightful Quintet for horn and strings and a horn quartet by Russian master Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Inspired by the echoing gorges and towering rock formations of U.S. national parks, Oliver Messiaen created a showstopping, atmospheric wonder in his Interstellar call for solo horn. Russians Nikolai Kapustin and Sergei Prokofiev embrace other cultures in their stunning works for mixed wind and string ensembles.

The Side-by-Side Concert is an extraordinary opportunity for young instrumentalists (grades 7-12) to perform alongside the New World Symphony Fellows. The students share the New World Center’s stage and develop musical relationships with the Fellows as they rehearse and perform music of the highest caliber. The students have been selected through auditions from different schools and organizations, including students from Medellín, Colombia.

Dazzling pianist Joyce Yang takes the New World Center stage for the first time to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Second Concerto. The work combines the best of all Classical worlds—Beethoven’s charm and surprises inspired by Haydn and Mozart. It took Witold Lutosławski four years to write his Concerto for Orchestra, a virtuosic showpiece for the entire ensemble led by Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä. Embracing nostalgia for his hometown, Zoltán Kodály encapsulated Hungarian folk traditions and gypsy influences in Dances of Galánta, culminating in a dizzying finale.

HK Gruber makes his anticipated return to New World Symphony in a triple threat performance as conductor, composer and singer. Travel back to the roaring ‘20s in Kurt Weill’s jazzy “Berlin in the Light” and a suite from his famous political satire The Threepenny Opera. Be the first on U.S. soil to hear Weill’s suite from Magic Night and Gruber’s own Northwind Pictures, a symphonic poem that pits nature against humanity using wind machines and music boxes. The magic of towering redwoods and shimmering light was the inspiration for Julia Adolphe’s ethereal Underneath the Sheen, in which she explores a lost home.

The NWS Percussion Fellows are ready to rock out on everything from drums, whistles, harmonicas to even trash. Composer Nathaniel Stookey scavenged a city dump to create his symphony of garbage, Junkestra. Stookey joins the Fellows with instruments he created from bike wheels, bird cages and other recycled material. György Ligeti’s song cycle pairs random Hungarian words and nonsense text with slide whistles and harmonicas. Ligeti wrote the work for Hungarian mezzo-soprano Katalin Károlyi, who also joins the Fellows in this performance. Surrounded by a battery of friends, the timpani takes center spotlight in Akira Nishimura’s Concerto, while Andy Akiho channels the rhythms of the city in to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem, originally written for the Bang on a Can collective.

NWS Conducting alumnus Joshua Gersen returns to bring one of the most alluring masterworks to the New World Center. Arabian Nights’ famed storyteller Scheherazade spins fables to survive. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov pays homage to the princess in this evocative and exotic symphonic page-turner—a treasure trove of imaginative scenes, like Sinbad on the high seas, with mesmerizing solo features.

The harpsichord may conjure images of men in wigs and ornate drawing rooms of times past, but Mahan Esfahani has made it his life’s mission to rehabilitate the instrument, bringing a rock star quality to both the keyboard and the music. Esfahani makes his NWS debut in this chamber music concert, which begins with a quartet by harpsichord-enthusiast C.P.E. Bach. In Oophaa, Iannis Xenakis brings the instrument into the future by amplifying and pairing it with two percussionists, who jam on flowerpots. Critics called Henryk Górecki’s whirlwind Concerto a veritable volcano and a spectacular plaything. Considered the Father of the String Quartet, Joseph Haydn broods in D minor. A suite of choral works by Heinrich Schütz is arranged for brass by NWS’s own Michael Linville.