Metropolitan Youth Symphony to feature music of Prokofiev with Pianist Tomasz Robak

The Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) will perform on Wednesday evening October 25, 2017 at 7:30 at the St. Charles Borromeo Convocation Hall on the Romeoville campus of Lewis University. Admission is free. The program will be repeated on Sunday afternoon October 29 at 4:00 in the Fine Arts Auditorium at Joliet Junior College. Admission is ten dollars at the door.

Dr. Lawrence Sisk, professor of music at Lewis University, will conduct the orchestra in a program that includes Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite and Troika from Lieutenant Kije, Aleksandr Borodin’s “In the Steppes of Central Asia,” Dmitri Shostakovich’s Polka from the Golden Age Ballet, Modest Musorgsky’s “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Pictures at an Exhibition, and Reinhold Gliere’s “Russian Sailor’s Dance” from The Red Poppy. Pianist Tomasz Robak will be the featured soloist in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in D-flat major, Opus 10.

This all-Russian program brings together original works for orchestra and a group of arrangements by Merle J. Isaac, Bruno Reibold and Belisario Errante. Maestro Sisk holds a special affinity for Russian music.

“I am especially looking forward to conducting Prokofiev’s first piano concerto, which will be a first for me,” says Sisk. “Another first will be the appearance of Tomasz Robak with MYSO, a fine young pianist from the Peabody Institute. This concerto will be an exciting challenge for the soloist, the players and the conductor.”

Founded in 1959 the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra has resided in Will County since 1991. Players in MYSO come from area high schools and middle schools, as well as Lewis University and Joliet Junior College. Maestro Sisk is celebrating 26 years as Music Director of MYSO.

MYSO rehearses every Wednesday evening that school is in session from 6:00 to 8:30 at Lewis University. The orchestra currently has openings in their violin section and will accept audition inquiries. For more concert and audition information, visit www.mysomusic.org.