The Orchestra of the Bronx announced it will conclude its 2025-26 season with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 5” and Johannes Brahms’ “Violin Concerto” on Sunday, June 7, at 3 p.m., in the Lovinger Theater at Lehman College, at 250 Bedford Park Blvd. W.
This upcoming show, which will have free admission with no reservations required, reflects the Orchestra of the Bronx’s mission, under the direction of founder and director Michael Spierman, to present stellar performances of music from the classical repertory.
Mendelssohn composed Symphony No. 5, later renamed “The Reformation” by his sister, in anticipation of the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 1830. The Augsburg Confession was a major event in the establishment of Protestant theology and the Lutheran Church.
Mendelssohn underlined this connection by using Martin Luther’s hymn “Ein feste burg ist unser Gott” and a cadence called the “Dresden Amen.” Ill health and a touring schedule delayed the completion of this work until 1832, when he conducted his first performance of it when he was 23 years old at the Singakademie in Berlin.
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, was the only violin concerto made by Brahms. It was dedicated to and premiered by his friend, violinist Joseph Joachim, on Jan. 1, 1879, at Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Joachim considered this music, as well as Mendelssohn’s, to be one of the four great German violin concerti.
“The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising, is Beethoven’s. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness,” Joachim said. The richest, most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s.”
Orchestra of the Bronx resident concert master Urara Mogi will also serve as the soloist for the violin concerto. In addition to also serving as the resident concert master for the Bronx Opera, Mogi has immense experience as a soloist and orchestra member in ensembles across the United States, Canada and her home country of Japan.
She is the principal violin for the Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, annually appears in that same role at the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival and has also served as concert master for various other orchestras in the tri-state area, including Princeton Pro Musica, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Altoona Symphony Orchestra and more.
Mogi also serves as the artistic director of Colza concerts, a Japan-based chamber ensemble and concert series that introduces gifted young performers and introduces seldom-heard chamber music to the public.
