LOVE LETTERS
CONCERT 5
March 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM
WENTZ CONCERT HALL, Naperville
March 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Monica Ellis, bassoonist

Michelle ISAAC Moshe’s Dream (CS 2021-22 Commission)
Valerie COLEMAN Opus Serena
Monica Ellis, bassoonist
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 3, Movement III, Poco allegretto
Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 5, Adagietto
Felix MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3, “Scottish” movements 1 (introduction only), II, and IV

What’s love got to do with it? Quite a lot, musically speaking. Join us for a musical exploration of devoted attachment, beginning with tender filial love in former Freeman Composition Fellow Michelle Isaac’s 2021-22 Chicago Sinfonietta commission, Moshe’s Dream, inspired by a dream her grandfather shared with her. Admiring love shines in Valerie Coleman’s Opus Serena, Concertino for Bassoon and Orchestra performed with Grammy Award-winning guest soloist Monica Ellis, which celebrates the life of iconic tennis athlete Serena Williams. Hidden love reveals itself in Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 - allegedly for his mentor’s wife, Clara Schumann, and Mahler’s feelings are disguised as music notes to his future wife Alma, in Symphony No. 5. The evening closes with inspirational love – Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 inspired by his visit to Holyrood Palace’s abbey ruins where Mary, Queen of Scotts, had lived.