Grieg & Sibelius
Masterworks II
November 14 & 15
Masterworks II is generously sponsored by Mr. Eugene Belz
Grieg & Sibelius
Masterworks II
November 14 & 15
with special guest conductor, Kedrick Armstrong
Elfrida Andrée: Overture in G minor
Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto Lorraine Min, piano
Poul Ruders: Tundra
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 3
This program brings together four works that reflect more than a century of different orchestral approaches to Nordic sounds. Elfrida Andrée’s Overture in G minor represents an important early Scandinavian voice. A pioneer for women’s rights in Sweden and one of the country’s first professional female musicians, Andrée wrote music grounded in Romantic forms and clear structural design. Her overture, among her earliest mature orchestral works, features dramatic contrast, hymn‑like themes, and confident orchestration influenced by the German symphonic tradition.
Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, performed with special guest pianist, Lorraine Min, offers a distinct Norwegian perspective shaped by folk‑influenced melodic contours and rhythmic patterns. Written when Grieg was in his mid‑twenties, the concerto combines virtuosic piano writing with carefully balanced orchestral support and an emphasis on long‑range structure.
Poul Ruders’ Tundra, composed in 1990 as a tribute to Jean Sibelius, reframes elements of Sibelius’s musical language through a contemporary idiom.
Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 3 completes the program with a work that marks a decisive shift in his symphonic style. Scored for a more modest orchestra and organized in three movements, the Third Symphony demonstrates Sibelius’s belief that broad symphonic scope could be achieved through the concentrated development of small musical ideas.
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Kedrick Armstrong is the new Music Director of the Oakland Symphony, named in 2024 as the 9th Music Director in the orchestra’s almost 100-year history. His inaugural season with the Oakland Symphony was met with audience and critical praise for his programming, dynamic stage presence and palpable energy for music-making and audience connectivity. Of their opening night performance, the San Francisco Chronicle remarked that “Armstrong and the orchestra were in glorious accord. Everything from richly blended strings to the spry and musing woodwind choir, the burnished French horns, blazing brasses and a pair of thundering timpanists combined in a singular performance. The orchestra sounded as fine as it ever has.”
The Oakland Symphony has embarked on a groundbreaking project that will elevate the voices of seven remarkable Black American Composers. The goal of “Blacknificent 7” is to cement the legacies of these works in the American classical canon, and to reach new, diverse audiences through innovative storytelling and digital distribution. The 2024-2025 season saw the first two premieres - Shawn Okpebholo's Two Black Churches with baritone Will Liverman and Carlos Simon’s Here I Stand: Paul Robeson, a co-commission with the Kennedy Center. Other 2025-2026 highlights include Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Verdi Requiem and works by Stravinsky, Mahler and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Kedrick’s 2025-2026 guest conducting appearances include the world premiere new production of Scott Joplin’s 1910 opera, Treemonisha, with the Washington National Opera. This powerful work reimagines the incomplete piece with direction by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, musical arrangement and orchestrations by composer Damien Sneed, and dialogue and lyrics by playwright Kyle Bass. In addition, Mr. Armstrong makes his orchestral conducting debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and Springfield Symphony, as well as a return to Chicago Sinfonietta.
Lorraine Min, piano
Cited by the New York Times for her “impeccable phrase-shaping (and) crystalline sound,” and by the Washington Post for her “admirable playing,” Min has performed extensively throughout Canada and USA, in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, India, and in South America. She has performed solo recitals and has made concerto appearances in some of the world’s most important concert halls such as New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, and the Chan Centre, to name only a few.
A dynamic chamber musician, Min has performed in prestigious North American venues including at the Ravinia and Tanglewood Festivals, in Europe, Asia, Australia, notably in Perth’s Western Australia Symphony Orchestra’s Amberley Mozart Day concerts where she was a featured guest artist. She can regularly be heard on CBC and ABC (Australian) radio.
Min’s success in prestigious international competitions include top prizes and special awards of distinction in the Washington International, D’Angelo, Frina Awerbuch, and the William Kapell Competitions. She was the top ranking Canadian pianist at nineteen years old in the Harveys Leeds and Busoni International Competitions, and laureate in the Van Cliburn Competition.
Min’s discography includes her solo CD of Schubert and Liszt and a CD featuring chamber music of Beethoven and Brahms for Canada’s esteemed Eine Kleine Music Festival. In 2013, Min released two CD’s, her subsequent solo CD, “In Recital” which features works by Chopin, Liszt, and Bartok, as well as a CD of Violin and Piano Sonatas by Franck, Debussy, and Prokofiev.
Born in Victoria and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Min studied on full scholarship at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and earned her Bachelor degree, Pi Kappa Lambda. On generous scholarships and numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Min received her Masters and Doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School.