Beethoven & Tchaikovsky

To celebrate our 90^th anniversary, the 2025-26 Charleston Symphony season kicks off with performances highlighting our community and its incredible local talent. CSO musicians Benjamin Mekinulov, who became Principal Cellist in 2023, and Concertmaster Yuriy Bekker, will perform the world premiere of a new double concerto by Charleston composer Yiorgos Vassilandonakis. 

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony has been an audience favorite since its 1813 premiere. The symphony at times is playful, delightful, and rhythmic, but it’s never simple. Its famous second movement, the Allegretto, has been made memorable for modern fans in scenes from more than 20 films and is often performed as a standalone piece. Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra is a fitting companion for Vassilandonakis’s new double concerto and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.  

Katharina Wincor, our guest conductor for these performances, is the past Assistant Conductor for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and is making quite a name for herself as an internationally recognized orchestral leader.  

MORE ON THE MUSIC & ARTISTS:

• The Dallas Morning News wrote about Austrian conductor Katharina Wincor: “Wincor’s conducting was both precise and evocative.” 
• Yiorgos Vassilandonakis is professor of music theory and composition at the College of Charleston. His awards and recognitions include: 2011 Aaron Copland Award, First Prize at the Mediterranean Music Center Third International Composition Competition, the Henry Mancini Award, and the Eisner Prize in Music. 

PROGRAM

Yiorgos Vassilandonakis
Double Concerto (World Premiere)

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)     
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33                                                                                      

INTERMISSION

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 7, in A Major, Op. 92           

ARTISTS

Katharina Wincor, Conductor
Yuriy Bekker, Violin
Benjamin Mekinulov, Cello