Member Encore Q&A

Zuill Bailey, cello (three-time Grammy winner)
Roberto Diaz, viola (President of the Curtis Institute of Music)
Piotr Gajewski, conductor

Schumann – Manfred Overture
Miklós Rózsa – Theme, Variations and Finale, op. 13
Richard Strauss – Don Quixote
Wagner – Prelude to Die Meistersinger

On November 14, 1943, Bernstein, a young and inexperienced assistant to the mighty Bruno Walter, took to the stage on very short notice to replace the suddenly ill maestro and to conduct the New York Philharmonic in a demanding program that included three warhorses of Western music and a contemporary orchestral piece. Bernstein recalled his debut in one of his last interviews: “There was no rehearsal… I strode out and I don’t remember a thing from that moment, until the sound of people standing and cheering and clapping.”

Zuill Bailey, a three-time Grammy Award winner, “is easily one of the finest cellists alive today.” — Classical Net

Roberto Diaz’s “depth of expression and large, vibrant resonance of Diaz’s playing swept through the sanctuary of Coral Gables Congregational Church.” — South Florida Classical Review