Besties launched Queer Urban Orchestra’s 2023-2024 season, Chosen Family. Two scintillating overtures celebrate the longtime romantic relationship and even longer friendship between two of America’s most important composers: Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti. “Luminous, expressive” (The New York Times) soprano Ariadne Greif joined the orchestra to perform works by three of her best buddies — Jessie Montgomery, Eve Beglarian, and Alex Temple — along with music by great friends Alma Mahler and Alexander von Zemlinsky. With each movement embodying the spirit of one of the composer’s dear friends, Edward Elgar’s sweeping Enigma Variations anchors the program. Plus, Youth Pride Chorus joined us for the full version of the theme song to The Golden Girls!

Program

• Menotti: Overture to Amelia at the Ball
• Ariadne Greif set #1
  • Alma Mahler: Ich wandle unter Blumen
  • Alma Mahler: Laue Sommernacht
  • Zemlinsky: Die drei Schestern
  • Ala Mahler: Bei dir ist es traut
• Barber: Overture to The School for Scandal
• Ariadne Greif set #2
  • Montgomery: Lunar Songs
  • Beglarian: Farther from the Heart
  • Temple: Liebeslied
• Elgar: Enigma Variations
• Gold: Thank You for Being a Friend (with the Youth Pride Chorus)