Queer Festival: Symposium!

Geoffrey Paterson conductor Tami Pohjola violin Jasper Dommett: New work Leonard Bernstein: Serenade Please note that there is no intermission during the concert. The young English composer Jasper Dommett (b. 1997) has explored historical and contemporary queer culture in their works and sought to amplify the voices of marginalized people. In their opera Fanny & Stella’s Last Day Out, they explored Victorian-era English drag culture, while Disco! Disco! Good! Good? and Zip, Zap, Boooooogie!!! delved into the world of dance and euphoria of the 1970s and 1980s. The new work commissioned by the Tapiola Sinfonietta from Dommett will serve as the highlight of the queer festival. Bernstein’s Serenade for Violin and Orchestra is based on Plato’s Symposium, and offers a lightly philosophical perspective on the theme, featuring Tami Pohjola – winner of the 2015 Kuopio Violin Competition – as soloist. Bernstein’s own queer background was most recently highlighted in the film Maestro (2023), directed by and starring Bradley Cooper.