Women Composers Reframe the Classical Tradition: From Bach to Beethoven and Beyond
Miami University Symphony Orchestra’s Final Concert of the Season
Women Composers Reframe the Classical Tradition: From Bach to Beethoven and Beyond
The Miami University Symphony Orchestra (MUSO) concludes its season with a powerful and wide-ranging program titled “Women Composers Reframe the Classical Tradition: From Bach to Beethoven and Beyond.” This final concert of the season takes place on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. in Hall Auditorium and is free and open to the public, with no tickets required.
Fresh off being awarded the 2025 American Prize in Orchestra Performance, MUSO invites audiences to experience a program that reflects both artistic excellence and bold, inclusive vision. The concert highlights the voices of women composers while tracing a compelling musical journey across centuries—from the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach to the revolutionary force of Ludwig van Beethoven, in preparation for the bicentennial of his death in 2027.
This special performance has been made possible thanks to the generous support of a grant from the Women’s Circle at Miami University, whose commitment to leadership, equity, and the arts continues to foster innovative and meaningful programming.
The evening opens with Clarice Assad’s Suite for Lower Strings, a contemporary work inspired by and based on themes by J. S. Bach. Assad—one of today’s most dynamic and versatile composers—reimagines Baroque material through a modern lens, creating a vivid dialogue between tradition and innovation.
Next is Helen Hagan’s Piano Concerto in C minor, featuring Michael Chertock as soloist. Hagan was among the earliest African American women composers to achieve national recognition, and her concerto combines Romantic expressiveness with formal sophistication, restoring an important and long-overlooked voice to the concert stage. Chertock is an internationally renowned pianist who will bring his brilliant rendition to the concerto.
The first half concludes with Sonia Morales-Matos’s Fiesta No. 3, an exuberant and rhythmically charged work infused with Latin American color and energy. Morales-Matos’s music celebrates movement, vitality, and cultural expression, bringing a joyful and contemporary pulse to the program.
After intermission, the orchestra performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, one of the most iconic works in the orchestral canon. Heard in the context of a program that begins with Bach-inspired material and centers women composers, Beethoven’s symphony emerges as both a culmination of tradition and a catalyst for artistic transformation.
As the season finale, this concert offers a fitting conclusion to an award-winning year—celebrating excellence, expanding the canon, and inviting audiences to hear the classical tradition as a living and evolving art form.
Thursday, May 7, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | Hall Auditorium
Free admission. No tickets required.