Thank you for attending this afternoon’s 2025-2026 season opening concert! This season celebrates our fifth anniversary season, and we are so excited to celebrate this anniversary with you. This season is based upon our fifth anniversary, highlighting fifth symphonies and our fifth annual production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker! This concert in particular is always special, as we partner with the Tennessee STEAM Festival for a concert specifically designed for you. You will first hear the well-known story of Peter and the Wolf, written by Sergei Prokofiev and narrated by Jolene Radnoti. Concluding the program is our first fifth symphony this season – the world premiere of Symphony No. 5 by Vadim Tsagareyshvili.
Concerts such as these are not possible without your support; please consider donating to the Middle Tennessee Sinfonietta on our fifth anniversary season to help continue our mission of collaborative concerts such as these. We accept donations via cash, check, PayPal, and Venmo. If you are interested in becoming a yearly donor or sponsor of our organization, please see our table in the lobby to get more information and connect with one of our staff members.
Thank you again for attending this afternoon’s concert and we hope you enjoy!
Meet the Narrator
Jolene Radnoti is the Executive Director of Read To Succeed, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering children, adults, and families through the power of literacy. She joined the organization eight years ago, bringing nearly a decade of experience in education, including seven years with Murfreesboro City Schools, where she discovered her passion for helping families overcome literacy barriers. Originally from Portage, Indiana, Jolene lives in Murfreesboro with her husband, David. They have two adult children and enjoy spending weekends on their family farm in London, Kentucky.
Read To Succeed improves lives in Rutherford County by offering free literacy programs and events for adults, families, and children. Their mission is supported by fostering literacy partnerships between providers, educators, community helpers, and business owners; creating community events and programming to promote literacy, and; providing resources such as the Literacy Center and their website.
Program Notes
Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian composer who rose to prominence in the early twentieth century. He was born in Sontsivka in 1891 to agricultural engineer Sergei Alexandrovich Prokofiev, and amateur pianist and music connoisseur Mariya Grigoryevna Prokofiev. As a result of the childhood deaths of his older two sisters, young Prokofiev was left an only child from a young age and thereby received the full attention and devotion of his parents, which was lovingly poured into his development and education. His mother encouraged his musical experimentation on the piano, which led to many self-taught techniques he would later have to correct in conservatory as a youth. Prokofiev began to compose before he reached proficiency on the piano, which often left him trying to find ways to express his creative ideas without necessarily being able to execute them. Nevertheless, he and his mother relocated to St. Petersburg and at the age of thirteen, he was enrolled in the St. Petersburg Conservatory as one of its youngest students. The age difference between he and his fellow students, combined with having grown up in a sheltered life in a rural area, made it difficult for young Prokofiev to make friends in school. But this challenge did not prevent him from excelling in his studies, impressing his teachers with his originality, and winning the Arthur Rubinstein Prize for the performance of his own work, Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major. In 1919, in the throes of the Russian Revolution, Prokofiev followed the footsteps of many artists at the time and left Russia. Despite the relocation and the civil strife of his homeland, however, his time living internationally, which he spent primarily in Paris, proved to be quite fruitful. During this time Prokofiev produced a number of operas and ballets – some ballets of which were commissioned by famed choreographer Diaghilev – and toured through Western Europe and America as a pianist. He also met his first wife, Lina Llubera, and became a father. After a decade and a half spent abroad, Prokofiev eventually returned to his homeland and learned to adjust to life in the Soviet Union. While he managed to remain quite successful and favorable in the eyes of such Russian leaders as Joseph Stalin, Soviet Era censorship still took a toll on his mental and physical health, arguably leading to his death in 1953. Prokofiev’s musical output was vast, spanning multiple genres, such as concerti, symphonies, ballets, operas, film scores, and program music, including most notably Romeo and Juliet, Alexander Nevsky, Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor, Sinfonia Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, and Peter and the Wolf. Among his musical influences were Alexander Scriabin, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Prokofiev composed Peter and the Wolf: An Orchestral Fairy Tale for Children in 1936, after his return to Russia. He consulted with Nataliya Sats, the director of the Moscow’s Children Theatre, to create a short programmatic piece for children that both highlighted different instruments of the orchestra in an accessible way to young audiences, and also promoted the ideals of the Soviet Union. Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf in a matter of weeks, modifying it slightly after its initial premiere. The story follows a young Russian boy named Peter, whose daring bravery leads him and his woodland creature friends in the pursuit of a dangerous wolf in the forest outside his home in the countryside. The orchestration of this short piece creates rich imagery in telling the story and conveying the emotions of the characters (both animal and human). Each animal is represented by a specific instrument: the bird by the flute, the duck by the oboe, the cat by the clarinet, and the wolf by a trio of french horns. Peter himself is represented by a theme in the strings, intentionally written as a strong, polyphonic melody to depict the strong-willed nature of the young boy. Peter and the Wolf has been a beloved classic in the decades since, performed alongside other children-oriented classical pieces like Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, or Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. The piece, which includes a spoken narration throughout the thirteen-minute duration, was famously recorded in 1978 by the Philadelphia Orchestra with narration provided by David Bowie.
Works Cited
Guillaumier, C. & ProQuest (2024) Sergei Prokofiev / Christina Guillaumier. London: Reaktion Books.
Howard, Orrin. “Peter and the Wolf, Sergei Prokofiev.” LA Phil, www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/552/peter-and-the-wolf. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
Morrison, S. (2008) The People’s Artist: Prokofiev’s Soviet Years. [Online]. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Taruskin, R., Nestyev, I.V. “Sergey Prokofiev.” Encyclopedia Britannica, August 6, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sergey-Prokofiev.
Symphony No. 5 in F-sharp minor by Vadim Tsagareyshvili
Vadim Tsagareyshvili is a contemporary Russian composer and a representative of the new generation of academic music. His work combines emotional openness with subtle intellectual depth, uniting the traditions of the Russian musical school with modern expressive means. Tsagareishvili’s compositions are performed at festivals and concert halls across Russia and Europe by leading orchestras and soloists. His music balances lyricism and drama, structural clarity and inner tension, making each piece a distinctive artistic statement.
Symphony No. 5 in F-sharp minor by Vadim Tsagareyshvili is a work in which classical form takes on the living breath of modernity. Its music unfolds like a journey — from turmoil to calm, from darkness to light. The first movement is marked by tense motion, as if reflecting an inner struggle; the second offers space for contemplation and quiet lyricism. The third movement, lively and incisive, brings rhythmic vitality, while the finale restores a sense of scale and clarity, concluding the symphony in light and reconciliation.
Program Notes by Natalie Mays.