02 Sep Press Release: Bohemian Rhapsody

Les Délices’ 2025-26 Season “Metamorphosis” Begins with Bohemian Rhapsody

Les Délices launches its 2025-26 Season “Metamorphosis” with three live performances of Bohemian Rhapsody (Oct. 17-19). This intimate, colorful chamber music program for oboe and strings celebrates little-known Bohemian and Moravian composers along with the Classical Era’s most enduring genius: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Honoring self-expression and cultural difference, the program explores themes of separation, nostalgia, and homecoming through folk tunes and other traces of Czech cultural identity.

Les Délices will give three performances of Bohemian Rhapsody this October 17, 18, and 19th in Akron, Cleveland Heights, and Rocky River. Subscription packages for Les Délices 2025-26 Concert Season go on sale August 15, 2025. Single tickets to all concerts will be available from September 10th.

Featured artists for Bohemian Rhapsody include Artistic Director Debra Nagy (oboe), Shelby Yamin (violin), Yaël Senamaud Cohen (viola), and Rebecca Landell (cello).

Unearthing an obscure musical legacy:

Bohemian Rhapsody celebrates the music of Bohemian composers from the late 18th and early 19th centuries – a time when Bohemia and Moravia were provinces of the Habsburg Empire, which resulted in cultural suppression. More than a century of Habsburg occupation in Bohemia and Moravia also meant that limited job opportunities sent many Bohemian musicians and composers abroad for work to cities such as Mannheim, Berlin, London, Naples, and the Imperial Court in Vienna, where many composers featured in Bohemian Rhapsody eventually settled.

Georg Druschetzky (pictured left), Franz Krommer, and Katerina Victoria Dusikova-Cianchettini are far from household names today, but in their time they were the entrepreneurial, prolific stars of the music scene. Bohemian Rhapsody features quartets for oboe and strings by Krommer and Druschetzky and selections for string trio by Dusikova-Cianchettini that show the composers’ individual flair and sophistication, making a strong case that all three should be better known.

Katerina Victoria Dusikova-Cianchettini

Born into a family of musicians in 1769 in the Moravian town of Čáslav (now in the Czech Republic), Katerina Victoria Dusikova-Cianchettini was a singer, pianist, harpist, and composer. She studied music with her father, celebrated organist and composer Jan Dussek, before moving to London around 1795. There, she met and married music publisher Francesco Cianchettini. Dusikova-Cianchettini was a celebrated teacher and performer in London society and several of her compositions were published. In Bohemian Rhapsody, Les Délices performs works by Dusikova in new arrangements by Artistic Director Debra Nagy.

Nagy commented, “Dusikova is another prime example of a Czech expat making a career and expressing themselves abroad. Her published music reflects not only her social milieu and audience but also her sense of humor and her personal artistry as a pianist. Audiences will hear a pair of waltzes that (while short) show her great sensitivity to color and texture. In addition, her Air Russe brings a distinctive eastern European flavor to a delightful showpiece rondo complete with cadenzas and other flights of fancy.”

A New Commission from Les Délices

Also featured in this program is a suite of Czech and Moravian folk songs arranged by New York City-based composer and harpsichordist Nathan Mondry (pictured left). Nagy explained the reason for the commission: “I couldn’t help but wonder: what if these talented late-18th and early-19th century composers from the Czech lands had been able to more openly celebrate their heritage in their music? With help from a Czech music scholar, I was able to access the earliest collections of Czech folk songs (c. 1850). I then asked Nathan Mondry, who composes brilliantly in Baroque and Classical musical styles to create a new work for us incorporating several folk tunes. He’s written a fun three-movement suite for oboe and strings that includes a Prelude, a cheeky Fugue, and a last movement in the form of theme and variations. The texts of the original folk songs also resonate beautifully with the underlying themes of our program: separation, nostalgia, and homecoming.”

EVENT DETAILS:

Bohemian Rhapsody
Celebrating Czech culture & folk tunes in 18th Century chamber music

Live performances: 

Friday, October 17, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Akron
1250 W Exchange St, Akron, OH 44313

Saturday, October 18, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Forest Hill Presbyterian Church
3031 Monticello Blvd, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118

Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 4:00 pm
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
20401 Hilliard Blvd, Rocky River, OH 44116
Pre-concert lecture at 3:15 pm