Carl St.Clair opens the fall 2019 semester of events by leading the USC Thornton Symphony in an all-Shostakovich concert, featuring Festive Overture and the composer's Symphony No. 10.

Premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in December 1953, many historians believe Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 is a portrait of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and relevant today as a characterization of dictatorship in general.