Now it’s done, and what an incredible experience. Being surrounded and overwhelmed by Mussorgsky’s work was thrilling, and the pressure to produce a drawing within the 35-minute time constraints ended up being a surprisingly exciting kind of motivation. There are things about the drawing I would change–I might enlarge the hut on fowl’s legs and eliminate Baba Yaga altogether, though I love the concept of her riding in a mortar and pestle with her broom for a rudder–but overall I was pleased to have a mostly finished study at the end of the piece.

Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra is comprised of area musicians, college students, and a few high school students. They only rehearse together for a day or two before each performance, having learned the music largely on their own, yet they consistently produce great results. I failed to remember to ask anyone to take photographs, so all I have are these photos from a newspaper reporter.