South Florida Classical Review

Dawn Upshaw

In a week with the openings of the Tropical Baroque Festival in Coral Gables and the Miami International Piano Festival in Fort Lauderdale, two concerts featuring works by contemporary composers are particularly enticing.

The American soprano Dawn Upshaw has been devoting her career to the works of present-day composers from around the globe. She is soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra in Three Songs by Osvaldo Golijov, one of her most frequent collaborators, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Arsht Center. True to his operatic roots, conductor Nicola Luisotti leads the Triumphal March and Ballet Music from Verdi’s Aida. The music director of the San Francisco Opera concludes the program with Prokofiev’s heroic Symphony No. 5. 305-949-6722; arshtcenter.org/cleveland.

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The music of Coral Gables native Ellen Taaffe Zwilich has been heard far too infrequently in South Florida. The first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983, Zwilich has produced a large output of works in all genres. As the culmination of a two-day residency at the University of Miami, Thomas Sleeper conducts the Frost Symphony Orchestra 8 p.m. Saturday in Zwilich’s Jubilation and Bassoon Concerto with Luciano Magnanini as soloist. Shostakovich’s iconic Symphony No. 5 completes the program at Gusman Concert Hall . 305-284-2400; music.miami.edu/concerts.

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