The Queen’s Gambit streaming series, set largely in Lexington, Kentucky, “had an Emmy Award-winning score by Carlos Rafael Rivera, which caught the ears of the folks at the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra,” writes Rich Copley in Wednesday’s (4/6) Lexington Herald Leader (KY). “The idea of queens and games and power sent the Philharmonic … on a musical romp through genres, centuries, forms, races, and genders resulting in ‘Queens Rule,’ Saturday night’s concert at the University of Kentucky… The concert, led by guest conductor Tong Chen, also features… the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre…. [The orchestra will perform] Rivera’s main title from ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ [as well as] a suite from Duke Ellington’s unfinished opera, ‘Queenie Pie.’ The Philharmonic commissioned [Marc T. Gaspard] Bolin to create an orchestral suite of about 15 minutes, including vocals.” Also on the program: the “Queen of the Night” aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute; Barber’s nine-minute opera A Hand of Bridge; Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 (“The Queen”), and Jennifer Higdon’s All Things Majestic. The concert was originally planned for last October but postponed due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
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