In 1943, Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 8 for the Festival of Soviet Music celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Soviet Union. It wasn’t a festive piece so much as an epic statement about war as the cruelest of all evils. Though criticized as gloomy and despairing, it remains one of Shostakovich’s finest scores. In contrast, Grammy Award-winning conductor Andrew Litton, music director of New York City Ballet and previous music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, leads the orchestra in “Pax Universalis,” a joyful work and an ode to world peace by contemporary composer Mohammad Fairouz. Meanwhile, two-time Grammy Award winning pianist Michelle Cann returns as soloist in Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1. Just 25 years old when he premiered it, Brahms composed a piano concerto on a symphonic scale, full of emotional depth, technical brilliance and innovative integration. “Michelle Cann is technically fearless, with a bold attack and an enormous, rich sound… But even more than Cann’s virtuosity, it was her joyous, lit-from-within energy that connected with the audience.” – La Scene Musicale