• Ticket Price
    $20-80
    Students Half Price
  • Duration
    90 min
    One intermission
Season Debut: Triumph – Tchaikovsky 5

Season Debut: Triumph – Tchaikovsky 5

Shostakovich’s shining Festive Overture, filled with triumphant brass fanfares and woodwind virtuosity, opens the season. Eighth Blackbird, America’s groundbreaking sextet, explores the rhythmic vitality and color of Viet Cuong’s Vital Sines. Tchaikovsky’s lush and expressive Symphony No. 5, with its unforgettable “fate” motif, brings the Season Debut to a triumphant close.

DMSO Remix Podcast

Learn more about the program on the DMSO Remix Podcast: Classical Conversations, hosted by Dr. Eric McIntyre. 

Event Sponsors

Exclusive Sponsor

  • These concerts have been made possible by a generous gift from the Harriet S. and J. Locke Macomber Des Moines Symphony Fund

Media Partner

Program

  • SHOSTAKOVICH Festive Overture Listen
  • Viet CUONG Vital Sines Listen
  • TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E Minor Listen

Performers

  • Joseph Giunta Conductor Bio
  • Eighth Blackbird Guest Artists Bio

Tickets

Single tickets are $20-$80 and are available through Des Moines Performing Arts. Ticket prices are subject to a $5 increase on the day of the concert, excluding student rush tickets.

Student tickets are $7.50-$35 and are available through the Civic Center Ticket Office. Student rush tickets, subject to availability, are $5 for junior high and high school students and $10 for all other students the day of the concert through the Civic Center Ticket Office. One ticket sold per valid Student ID.

Learn More

Join us 45 minutes before the concert in the Prairie Meadows (East) Lobby for a free Concert Prelude Talk. Led by Dr. Eric McIntyre of Grinnell College, these discussions are complimentary to ticket holders and offer engaging and topical commentary on the featured program. 

Digital Program Books

In an effort to reduce our environmental impact and preserve natural resources, we now offer a Digital Program Book. Click here to read about the program, guests artists and composers featured this weekend.

Joseph Giunta

Joseph Giunta Conductor

One of America’s most distinguished, versatile and dynamic conductors, Joseph Giunta is a musician of international acclaim. He is recognized as an important American conductor for his innovative programming and for his compelling interpretations of traditional and new music. His musical depth combined with his boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm makes him one of the most respected and successful orchestra leaders in the United States.

Learn More About Maestro Giunta

Eighth Blackbird

Eighth Blackbird Guest Artists

Eighth Blackbird moves music forward through innovative performance, advocacy for music by living composers, and its legacy of guiding an emerging generation of musicians.

Hailed as “one of the smartest, most dynamic ensembles on the planet” (Chicago Tribune), Eighth Blackbird [8BB] has been operating for 27 years, beginning in 1996 as a group of six undergraduates and continuing under the leadership of two founding members, Lisa Kaplan, Pianist | Executive Director, and Matthew Duvall, Percussionist | Artistic Director.

8BB is firmly entrenched in the fabric of creative music, cited as “a brand-name defined by adventure, vibrancy and quality” (Detroit Free Press).

Accolades include:
Four Grammy Awards for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance | The MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions | The Concert Artists Guild Competition Grand Prize | The Musical America Ensemble of the Year | The Chamber Music America Visionary Award | The APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards Performance of the Year.

In addition to chamber music performance, the members of 8BB value their roles as curators, educators, and mentors. Beginning exclusively as a chamber music ensemble, 8BB has expanded in recent years to represent numerous mission-driven initiatives.

In 2017, Eighth Blackbird inaugurated its boldest initiative yet: The Blackbird Creative Lab

The Blackbird Creative Lab [The Lab] is an inclusive two-week professional development immersion for performers and composers, and an ongoing community of practice for contemporary classical musicians and composers. The Lab fosters expansive artistic vision, collaboration, mentorship, and building a viable life as an artist. It continues its mission beyond the two-week immersion to find opportunities for its network of alumni to present in professional engagements. The Lab’s next iteration will be hosted in May 2023 at Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, WI.

In 2020, 8BB introduced: The Chicago Artists Workshop

The Chicago Artists Workshop [CAW] was conceived with the purpose of creating work for artists during a time when the performance industry was enormously threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. When work for artists disappeared, CAW created paying livestream engagements for artists during the stoppage of 2020-2021. CAW continues as a presenting series in both live venues and livestream platforms. It is a determinedly cross-genre series defined not by genre or discipline, but by extraordinary caliber and creativity.