Eric Kujawsky

Eric Kujawsky is the music director of Redwood Symphony, a community orchestra based in Redwood City, California. He appears there across a season that mixes large-scale symphonic works with rarely performed theatrical pieces, pairing standard repertoire with less common companions on the same program. Listeners can expect programs built around a central idea, with pieces chosen to illuminate each other.

Across this season's programs, expect ambitious pairings rather than safe, single-composer evenings. The Mahler Seventh is a sprawling, nocturnal symphony full of odd instrumental colors, mandolin and guitar among them, and a listener should notice how the mood shifts from murky opening to a blazing, almost garish finale. The Stravinsky festival juxtaposes the stark, chamber-scaled storytelling of "The Soldier's Tale" with the folk-ritual pounding of "Les Noces," so expect a night built around rhythm and narrative rather than lush sound. The Sibelius Second offers long-breathed string melodies building to an anthem-like close, following a Prokofiev concerto full of lyrical, high violin writing. The Italian program pairs Rossini's bustling overture energy with Mendelssohn's sunlit, dance-driven Fourth Symphony.