Fernanda Lastra

Fernanda Lastra appears as conductor with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, leading a program of Dukas, Barber, and Mahler. Beyond this listing, we do not have verified biographical details to share, so listeners should look to this concert itself as the best introduction to her work.

The evening opens with Dukas's L'Apprenti Sorcier, a brightly orchestrated showpiece built around a bouncing bassoon tune that later gets swallowed by the full orchestra as the story's runaway broom takes over. Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 follows, a lyrical setting for high voice and orchestra of a nostalgic prose text, its long unhurried melodic lines meant to evoke a warm summer evening on a porch. The program closes with Mahler's Symphony No. 4, his shortest and most transparent symphony, scored for a smaller orchestra than his others and ending with a soprano singing a folk-like vision of childlike heaven. Listeners can expect a program that moves from orchestral storytelling, to intimate vocal writing, to a symphony whose sound stays light and songful even in its most searching moments.