It’s one wonderful night, and the memories last for the whole year.
The Queens Symphony Orchestra Summer Concert is at St. John’s University’s Great Lawn on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at 7 pm.
Entitled “Four Seasons: A Musical Voyage from Italy to Argentina and Back,” this 23rd annual performance celebrates Italian music and features Kinga Augustyn on violin. The two main pieces are Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. (Argentina native Piazzolla, the father of Tango Nuevo, was a son of Italian immigrants.)
The closer is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien.
Admission and parking are free. Motorists are asked to enter via Gate One at 80-00 Utopia Pkwy. before 7 pm. (They’re also encouraged to bring chairs and blankets.)
Founded in 1953, QSO is the oldest and largest professional arts organization in Queens. It’s also the borough’s only professional orchestra and the only NYC-based orchestra that’s not in Manhattan.
Leading QSO since 2017, Maestro Martin Majkut is “a bicoastal conductor with Old World sensibilities.” The former Fulbright scholar has also been the Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon, since 2010.
Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Majkut earned his Ph.D. in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts while serving as Assistant Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic. He earned a D.M.A. from the University of Arizona in 2008. He also studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and at the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, Austria.
In case of rain, the concert will move indoors to SJU’s Little Theatre, which is on campus.
Editor’s note: During the pandemic, Majkut created What Goes Through The Conductor’s Head, a series of short videos that offer insight into a conductor’s score study process.
Images: QSO