The rich variety of food and classical music in Breaking Barriers 2025 includes a smorgasbord of bite-sized chamber works. Co-curators Marin Alsop and Food Network star Molly Yeh introduce French and pan-American pieces performed by CSO musicians and guests.
Debussy’s epic-poetic portrayals of Greek mythology’s Pan, Syrinx and Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, showcase Principal Flutist Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson and other winds; the latter also features Yeh herself on percussion, in a chamber-ensemble arrangement by Néstor Bayona. Copland’s Quiet City casts English horn and trumpet as brothers wrestling with bluesy melancholy, while Piazzolla’s Libertango has the strings energetically fusing jazz and the Argentine dance. Victoria Bond’s Bridges—a work written for Assistant Principal Clarinetist John Bruce Yeh and his ensemble Birds and Phoenix—bounces with East-West fusions of folk and jazz tunes. At the concert’s center, Bernstein’s La Bonne Cuisine, a cycle of humorous songs set to recipes from a French cookbook, will feature Steans Institute Singers Program director Kevin Murphy on piano with a singer from the program.
With the concert ticket, guests are invited to build a “tapas box” with sample bites inspired by the music—created by Breaking Barriers guest chefs, who introduce the pairing before each piece’s performance—to enjoy during the concert.
