Fables and Fantasies: UMD Symphony Orchestra • IN-PERSON

Witness spellbinding stories about bustling marketplaces, majestic palaces, ancient mythological creatures and a soul's journey through darkness into divine light in this enchanting performance by the UMD Symphony Orchestra. Each of the pieces presented tell their own story, exploring mythos and legends from across the world.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade brings the princesses’ legendary storytelling to the orchestral stage. Audience members listen as Scheherazade, represented by the solo violin, weaves her tales for the sultan.

In the world premiere of his piece, The Pure Lotus, Mark Wilson explores the ancient Egyptian vision of the soul’s night voyage to the afterlife. Inspired by his grandfather's collection of archaeology and ancient history books, Wilson drew on text from a papyrus scroll dated to 1250 BC that was previously poeticized by Robert Hillyer. These excerpts represent the soul singing out in paradise.