Cyrus Ginwala, guest conductor
Hans Brightbill, cello
Program:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
David Conte — The Masque of the Red Death, Suite No. 1
Ernest Bloch — Schelomo – Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Cello and Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Nutcracker Ballet excerpts – Act 1, Scenes 6, 8, and 9
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About the artists
Cyrus Ginwala was recently Professor of Music and Director of the School of Music at San Francisco State University. His guest conducting credits include the Roanoke Symphony, the Boca Pops, the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, the Aspen Concert Orchestra, and the Sewanee Summer Festival Orchestra. He has taught at the Peabody Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. From 1996 to 2005, he served as Music Director of the Symphony of the Mountains, where he conducted more than 100 works in subscription and pops concerts and expanded both the orchestra’s concert and education programs.
David Conte is an American composer and long-time faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His works are performed widely, and he has been a central figure in the Bay Area’s musical community for decades. More about his work can be found at davidconte.net.
Hans Brightbill, Ph.D., is a research scientist at Amgen, where he studies the molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory disease. He joined BARS in 2008 and has served both on the Board and as co-principal cello. Alongside degrees in Biology (UC Irvine) and Immunology (UCLA), he earned a B.M. in Cello Performance and has remained an active performer throughout his life. Hans is also principal cello of two other Bay Area orchestras, and has recently appeared as soloist in Bloch’s Schelomo and Elgar’s Cello Concerto, including a tour to Costa Rica with the Sonoma County Philharmonic. He lives in San Francisco with his husband, Anthony.
About the program
American writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Masque of the Red Death in 1842, partly inspired by a masque held in Paris in 1832 during a severe cholera epidemic. Suite No. 1 of David Conte’s Masque of the Red Death is based on music drawn from the first act of a projected two-act ballet. The work was commissioned in 1992 for the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A revised version of the suite was commissioned by the Oakland Symphony, under conductor Michael Morgan, and premiered in 1994. The scenario for the ballet was written by Lawrence Pech, Founder and Artistic Director of Diablo Ballet and former Principal Dancer of the San Francisco Ballet.
Ernest Bloch wrote Schelomo: Rhapsodie hébraïque in 1916, at a time when he was searching for a personal musical language rooted in his Jewish heritage. Originally conceived for voice, it became a rhapsody for cello and orchestra, the cello taking on the role of King Solomon — eloquent, weary, and reflective. Rather than a literal retelling, the piece unfolds as a dialogue between the soloist and orchestra, alternating grandeur with deep introspection. The music’s sweeping lines, modal inflections, and rich orchestration give Schelomo a timeless power: part lament, part meditation, and one of Bloch’s most moving artistic statements.
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, first composed in 1869 and later revised twice, was his breakthrough orchestral work. Suggested by composer Mily Balakirev, who also guided its form and key structure, the piece marks an early fusion of Tchaikovsky’s lyrical Romanticism with the Russian nationalist style. Although its premiere was poorly received, the later revisions refined its symphonic drama and introduced the soaring love theme now known worldwide. Beneath its Shakespearean program lies Tchaikovsky’s own struggle for artistic confidence and emotional expression, turning a mentor’s assignment into one of the most passionate and enduring works in the orchestral repertoire.
These excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker highlight the composer’s imaginative orchestral writing at the height of his maturity. From the shimmering transition into the Waltz of the Snowflakes (Act I, Scene 6) to the radiant opening of the Kingdom of Sweets and the colorful national dances (Scenes 8–9), Tchaikovsky transforms simple stage moments into music of symphonic depth. Premiered in 1892, The Nutcracker was initially undervalued, yet its harmonic daring, rhythmic sparkle, and use of the newly invented celesta reveal a composer exploring new sonic possibilities.