Today is the 90th birthday of Finnish master Aulis Sallinen. Sallinen is the composer of seven operas, eight symphonies, concertos for various instruments, and numerous chamber works.

Those living in the area will have a chance to check-out his rarely-heard Cello Concerto on a pair of concerts to be performed by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. The soloist will be the orchestra’s 2024 Schadt String Competition winner, Gaeun Kim. (Kim, a Juilliard graduate, won the prize for playing this very concerto.) Hats off to the ASO for allowing her to play something other than the “Rococo Variations.”

Also on the program will be the world premiere of Clarice Assad’s “Frankenstein,” a 25-minute ASO commission, an orchestral narrative stitched together from fragments conceived for the purpose by 50 other composers; and, to send everyone home happy, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Music director Diane Wittry will conduct.

The concerts will be held at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown, PA, on April 26 & 27, It’s a 90-minute drive from Princeton and Philadelphia, perhaps just a tad longer from NYC. For tickets and information, visit https://www.millersymphonyhall.org/

Happy birthday, Aulis Sallinen!

“Sunrise Serenade” for 2 trumpets, piano and string orchestra

String Quartet No. 3 played by the Kronos Quartet

Symphony No. 7 “The Dreams of Gandalf”

Kim playing the second movement of Sallinen’s concerto