Festival begins with a performance of Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 (March 7) at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls preceded by a multi-media survey of historical and political context with SDSO Scholar in Residence Joseph Horowitz.
Festival continues with rare screening of the landmark of Soviet silent cinema The New Babylon (1929), accompanied by live music by a SDSO chamber orchestra and conducted by Gier, at South Dakota State University in Brookings and at the Goss Opera House in Watertown, and at Augustana University (March 12–15).
(February 25, 2026, Sioux Falls, SD) – The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) and Music Director Delta David Gier announce a spring 2026 festival in exploration of the tumultuous life and times of Dmitri Shostakovich. Through multi-media presentations, live performances, and discussions, the SDSO’s Shostakovich Festival begins at home in the Washington Pavilion with a performance of Shostakovich Symphony No. 8, preceded by a survey of historical and political context, in partnership with SDSO Scholar in Residence Joseph Horowitz.
The festival events continue with the SDSO presentation of the film The New Babylon (1929), accompanied by live music, at South Dakota State University, in Brookings and at the Goss Opera House in Watertown, and at Augustana University (March 12–15). The landmark of Soviet silent cinema, The New Babylon depicts the 1871 Paris Commune and exemplifies the fusion of propaganda and artistic achievement. With only six documented offerings in the US in history, these SDSO presentations offer a rare opportunity to experience The New Babylon with live chamber orchestra accompaniment.
“There is a near universal response from listeners of Shostakovich’s music: What does this music mean? This composer served as the voice of the Russian people under the Soviet regime, a voice of conscience which resonates as powerfully today as it ever has. Like all truly great art it challenges us to examine our place in the world, helps us on our quest for meaning. Shostakovich considered his Eighth Symphony to be his greatest. It is best listened to within the context of the history surrounding it,” said Music Director Delta David Gier.
The 2026 Shostakovich Festival exemplifies the SDSO model that centers education as a core strategic and artistic activity, with direct connections to subscription concerts and overseen by the music director. In partnership with Gier, renowned scholar Horowitz scripts contextualized concerts, curates ancillary events, and cultivates partnerships with high schools and universities. South Dakota State University Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences David Earnest will provide context for the New Babylon film during pre-performance discussions. The larger goal is to create a national template for humanities-infused symphonic programming that explicates unfamiliar music, links subscription concerts to educational partners, and employs a resident scholar.
Shostakovich Festival
The SDSO’s festival centered on Dmitri Shostakovich is anchored by a performance of his Symphony No. 8 (1943), a 60-minute work that bears witness to the profound suffering of Russia during World War II. This symphony stands alongside the Symphony No. 7 (“Leningrad”), which was the focus of a similar SDSO festival in 2023.
The March 7, 2026, performance of Symphony No. 8 will be preceded by a 30-minute dramatic prelude incorporating visuals and live music. Scripted by Scholar-in-Residence Joseph Horowitz and hosted by Music Director Delta David Gier, this prelude will place the symphony in historical and political context, addressing Stalin’s totalitarian oppression, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, and Shostakovich’s personal and artistic odyssey.
Following this concert, the SDSO will present The New Babylon (1929), accompanied by live music by a SDSO chamber orchestra and conducted by Gier, at South Dakota State University, in Brookings, at the Goss Opera House in Watertown, and at Augustana University (March 12–15). The New Babylon depicts the 1871 Paris Commune and exemplifies the fusion of propaganda and artistic achievement. Shostakovich’s continuous score—his first film score, composed at age 23—captures both the fervor and sharp wit of his early genius, blending satire with high drama. The SDSO will perform the score using the same 15-piece theater orchestra typical of Russian performances during the pre-Stalin cultural flowering of the Bolshevik Revolution. Political scientist and South Dakota State University Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences David Earnest of South Dakota State University will provide introductory remarks at all three screenings.
Additional related university events include classroom visits, campus talks, and screenings of Grigory Kozintsev’s King Lear (1971), widely regarded as the finest film adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy and the final collaboration in the 50-year artistic partnership between Kozintsev and Shostakovich, which began with The New Babylon. Participating institutions will also be invited to a virtual discussion with Solomon Volkov, author of Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, who offers a vivid personal perspective on the composer.
The SDSO’s 2026 Shostakovich Festival is made possible through the generosity of the Teagle Foundation and the South Dakota Arts Council.
Joseph Horowitz
Joseph Horowitz, Scholar-in-Residence of the South Dakota Symphony, has been working with the SDSO since the 2016 festival “Dvorak and America,” which took the New World Symphony to the Sisseton Indian Reservation. It was the first of four projects Horowitz brought to South Dakota as part of the NEH-funded “Music Unwound” consortium he headed. The others were “Copland and Mexico” (celebrating Silvestre Reveltas), “American Roots” (celebrating Charles Ives), and “New World Encounters” (exploring the impact of jazz on European-born composers). In addition, he has partnered SDSO festivals featuring Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony
As the central historian of American classical music, Horowitz has long espoused the SDSO model as a national template. This is the topic of his “manifesto” for America’s symphonic future in a 2023 article in The American Scholar. He has also frequently featured SDSO in his “More than Music” documentaries on National Public Radio – most recently, a feature on the orchestra’s Lakota Music Project.
About Joseph Horowitz: www.josephhorowitz.com
The American Scholar article: https://theamericanscholar.org/shostakovich-in-south-dakota/
The NPR show on Lakota Music Project: https://www.artsjournal.com/uq/2025/12/the-lakota-music-project-vs-rootlessness-today.html
South Dakota Symphony Orchestra
Delta David Gier, Music Director
As the state’s preeminent arts organization, the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) is nationally recognized as a driver for how an orchestra engages with its community. Founded in 1922 at Augustana University, the SDSO is now a fully professional 75-member orchestra with a history of performing in towns throughout South Dakota. The SDSO’s concert seasons feature a diverse mix of classical and pops programming, performed at the Mary W. Sommervold Concert Hall at the Washington Pavilion. The orchestra’s nine full-time musicians make up the Dakota String Quartet and the Dakota Wind Quintet, which offer over 100 performances annually in schools, health and care facilities, and community centers throughout the region.
Delta David Gier has been Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Under his direction, the orchestra has been lauded for its programming (including seven ASCAP awards). His series based on the Pulitzer Prize was called “an unprecedented programming innovation” by the Wall Street Journal and has included residencies with composers Jennifer Higdon, John Corigliano, Steven Stucky, Zhou Long, John Luther Adams, Paul Moravec, and Theodore Wiprud. During Gier’s tenure the SDSO has expanded its offerings with a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies, numerous world premieres, and semi-staged operas. The recent release of the SDSO’s recording of John Luther Adams’ An Atlas of Deep Time on Cantaloupe has received international recognition.
Gier is nationally recognized for championing living composers and his ability to deepen an orchestra’s impact in its community. Gier is the 2022 recipient of Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award, which called him “the model of an engaged conductor,” a sentiment echoed by writer Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker, “…his group is the model of an engaged orchestra,” adding that “the South Dakota Symphony is bolder and savvier in its programming than all but a handful of American ensembles.”
The Lakota Music Project (LMP) was developed under Gier’s direction to address racial tensions between Native Americans and non-Natives in the region the SDSO serves. Since 2005, the LMP is a side-by-side program with the SDSO and Lakota/Dakota musicians which explores the role music plays in their respective cultures, seeking to engender understanding, trust, and healing between estranged peoples. This program traveled to Washington, D.C. in October 2019 for performances at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and the National Cathedral and across the state of South Dakota in October 2025. A recording of the music commissioned for the LMP was released on the Innova label.
Over the last decade the Lakota Music Project has expanded into Bridging Cultures, a broader program which has included projects with several communities in South Dakota including South Asian (tabla player Zakir Hussain; composer Reena Esmail), Arab (with oud artist Simon Shaheen and composer Malek Jandali), Persian (with composers Behzad Ranjbaran and Nilofar Iravani), Chinese (with composers Chen Yi and Zhou Long), and Sudanese/Somali refugees (with the Bernard Woma Ensemble).
Live SDSO performances are heard by over 30,000 people including 15,000 children annually. Additionally, SDSO concerts are livestreamed and available free of charge through a partnership with South Dakota Public Broadcasting. A robust digital library includes virtual recitals, music education videos, and podcasts.
Education is a fundamental priority for the SDSO, which offers programs including the long-standing annual Young People’s Concerts for over 4,000 third and fourth graders, the South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra, Young Musician Concerto Competition, Music Composition Academies, and regular engagements throughout the academic year by the Dakota String Quartet and Dakota Wind Quintet in Sioux Falls Public Schools.
Calendar Listing
Main Concert
Shostakovich Symphony No. 8
Delta David Gier, conductor
Saturday, March 7, 2026, 7:30pm
Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls
The New Babylon Series
South Dakota State University
Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 7:30pm
Brookings, SD
Goss Opera House
Saturday, March 14, 2026, 7:00pm
Watertown, SD
Augustana University
Hamre Recital Hall
Sunday, March 15, 2026, 1:00pm
Sioux Falls, SD
Please visit “Shostakovich Festival” at sdsymphony.org for more information and to purchase tickets.
