What happens when composers seek inspiration beyond their own time and place? The Best of All Worlds brings together music shaped by cultural exchange, inherited ideas, and creative reinvention—echoing Voltaire’s famous question at the heart of Candide.

Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide revisits Voltaire’s Enlightenment satire through vibrant mid-century American musical idioms, bursting with wit and theatrical energy. In contrast, Lili Boulanger’s D’un Soir Triste and D’un Matin de Printemps—written near the end of her brief but remarkable life—trace opposing emotional worlds. The former unfolds with sombre intensity, the latter sparkles with vitality, together revealing a distinctly personal, forward-looking voice shaped by impressionist sensibilities and the turmoil of the Great War. Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s symphony “From the New World”—voted no 17 in the ABC’s 2026 Classic 100—responds to cultures he encountered in America, transforming their spirit through a European lens.

Essendon Symphony Orchestra is pleased to welcome their new Musical Director and Conductor, Dr Kathleen McGuire, with an exciting program which celebrates the idea that music—like optimism itself—is often forged by drawing on the best of all worlds.