Overture to “Uncle Vanya” (2022) is an overture to an imaginary opera based on the play of the same name (publ. 1898) by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov (1860–1904). The music is not directly programmatic but rather, in the typical manner of an overture, ruminates in a compact form on moods, themes, scenes, and characters from the play itself. Actual opera overtures have historically had their own life as independent concert pieces, and thus the attempt here is to present an atmospheric picture, even without an opera or play following it.

This organ work was written for and is dedicated to Thomas Sheehan.

(Photographs from the metropolitan premiere production of the play at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1899.)