Page 16 - Phil opening night program digital final

Program Notes

Tonight’s program is inspired by magnificent melodies from the operatic stage. You’ll experience fiery-yet-
tuneful dances from Borodin’s opera, Prince Igor, and two violin concertos, each based on a much-loved
opera, Bizet’s Carmen and Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess. Also (and if you can believe it), in all of my completed
32 years of leading our beloved orchestra, we have never performed the complete Overture to ‘William Tell’
until tonight. (We have, of course, performed many times the familiar galloping “Lone Ranger” theme which
comes from the overture’s finale.) If that isn’t enough, as a prelude to our opera extravaganza, we give the
premiere performance of a symphonic Fanfare written especially for us — and you. Enjoy!
—StevenKaridoyanes

Program Notes by Laura Stanfield Prichard

A Festival Fanfare (2026) Elena Roussanova
(b. 1974)
Elena Roussanova is currently a professor of composition at Berklee, building on a successful career
as a piano prodigy and a summa cum laude graduate of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
She recently completed a tone poem based on the life of conductor Serge Koussevtisky for the Boston
Symphony (Journey to a New Land, 2019). DECCA Classics just released last month the highly-acclaimed
album Mujer Fatal for which Roussanova composed the title song, performed by Sir Antonio Pappano
(piano) and Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo-soprano).

Says conductor Steven Karidoyanes, “Elena is a longtime cherished friend and colleague. I have always
been a fan of her music. Several seasons ago we performed her gorgeous orchestral suite, Moments of
Arrival. Another of her compositions, Festival Celebration Music, just sparkles! Since it is scored for just
brass and percussion, I asked Elena if she might ever consider creating a full symphonic version of it. Being
such a good friend, she did it! Her A Festival Fanfare is the result — and we get the privilege to give its
premiere performance. Cherished friend, indeed!”
About her background, Roussanova recalls, “I was born during the Soviet Union ... so many people
had mixed origins. I have a lot of different nationalities in my ancestry – Ukrainian, Russian, Tatar. My
grandmother was singing Ukrainian songs to me; my mother was singing Tatar songs. My grandfather was
Russian, and my parents also loved Italian opera. One of my favorite rock groups of all time is the band
Chicago.”
The Fanfare includes inspiration from the composer’s rich, blended family heritage. It portrays a Slavic
Yármarka, or annual market fair, popular throughout Russia and Central Asia. Several centuries ago, these
fairs would feature Skomorokhs, medieval East Slavic traveling actors, musicians and jesters who performed
song, dance, and satire in town squares. The five-minute Fanfare opens with a Skomorokh theme, then a
feature for low brass and tambourine: “a dance of the circus bear... trained to move rhythmically to music.
This part of the act always gets a large crowd.” Roussanova incorporates the sounds of “acrobats, games,
beautiful costumes, and dainties,” culminating in a warm, vibrant “Hymn, which magnifies the beautiful
countryside with its colorful landscapes and deep expansive lakes.”

14 ~ Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra