In This Story
In a season filled with live performances, you can sometimes expect the unexpected, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra, originally scheduled to perform at the Center for the Arts on February 12, has announced that it is unable to move forward with its 2023 tour. However, Center for the Arts Director of Programming Adrienne Bryant Godwin notes, “We are THRILLED to share that the Czech National Symphony (CNSO)—who wowed our audience with their 2019 performance at the Center—has stepped in to perform the originally planned program featuring GRAMMY-nominated violinist Robert McDuffie as the soloist. This esteemed orchestra will be celebrating their 30th anniversary in February, so I’m elated their celebration coincides so perfectly with this new opportunity to present them again."
Under the direction of Music Director Steven Mercurio, the CNSO will perform an uplifting program of masterworks, embracing the sheer joy and optimism of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. This good-for-your-spirit concert also showcases international celebrity violinist Robert McDuffie performing Brahms’s electrifying Violin Concerto in D Major (Brahms’s only violin concerto). Praised by the Chicago Sun-Times for his playing’s “magnetic energy and seeming effortlessness,” McDuffie not only has appeared as a soloist with the world’s leading orchestras, but also has performed with such diverse performers as Chuck Leavell, the late Gregg Allman, and actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith. Composers including Philip Glass and Mike Mills of R.E.M have written music especially for him, and critics have raved about his performance style that is “demonstrative and physical, hard-driving without sacrificing sensitivity” (South Florida Classical Review) and his “Emotional spontaneity, imperturbable virtuosity and an ever-sweet tone (Los Angeles Times).
This unforgettable and inspiring afternoon of Beethoven and Brahms with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Robert McDuffie takes place on Sunday, February 12 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at cfa.gmu.edu. Enjoy a video below of McDuffie in recital from March 2021 with pianist Robert Spano, performing Brahms's Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 78.