MusicaNova Opens New Season at MIM

MusicaNova Orchestra (MNO) opens its 2018-19 season with1918: An Armistice Without A Peace on Sunday, October 28 at 2:00 PM in MNO's new home at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), 4725 E. Mayo Blvd. in Phoenix. Tickets are $33 and $38 (plus service charges) through the MIM box office at mim.org or by calling 480-478-6000.

In the watershed year 1918 the Great War ended and the age of perpetual worldwide conflict began. Old empires fell and new ones arose-and the face of orchestral music was transformed. 1918: An Armistice Without A Peaceincludes works from two great composers of the Romantic Era who died that year, Claude Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," and Sir Hubert Parry's neglected Symphony No. 3, "The English."

The beginning of modern music after 1918 was marked by the emergence of the young Sergei Prokofiev, who left the nascent Soviet Union that year to spread "musical revolution." Rina Kubota, 17, is the featured soloist in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1.

And the next tumultuous century, from 2018 on, is recognized in a world premiere from MNO-ASU Composition Fellow Connor Helms, Fugue No. 1 "Squaring the Circle."

Remaining concerts in MusicaNova's 2018-19 season at the MIM include The Mystical Muse: Cycles of Inspiration and Hope on January 6, 2019 and The Forgotten Symphonies: Unveiling the Romantics on March 31, 2019. Both concerts feature world, American, and Arizona premieres.

MusicaNova is a professional symphony orchestra founded in the Valley in 2003. MNO also presents its Young Artists Concert and free Community Concert Series at venues in Phoenix and Scottsdale, conducts extensive educational outreach with Valley schools, and sponsors the unique MNO Composition Fellows Program for hands-on mentoring of emerging composers.

MNO Orchestra Concerts are supported by grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Scottsdale Arts, the Scottsdale League for the Arts, and Tempe Arts Grants. Call 480-750-9466 for more information, or visit musicanovaaz.com.