The iconic opening fanfare of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony features the horns and bassoons in unison, blaring out one repeated note in a distinct looooooong-short-short-short-short, short, loooooooong rhythm. The motif comes back multiple times in the symphony, making it an easy point of inspiration for the poster.

Beyond the rhythm, I also wanted to express a sense of Russian grandeur apparent in both the Tchaikovsky symphony and the Rimsky-Korsakov piece on the program. We tried overlaying the rhythm on a lot of different background photographs of Russian landmarks, from St. Basil’s Cathedral to the Winter Palace. This final image you see here is one that I took at the New York Public Library on a trip to NYC in October 2013.

UCBSO Design Team: Irene Kim, Ben Taube