Mason Bates (b. 1977) is a Grammy Award-winning American composer, who has served as composerin-residence at some of the top orchestras in the US, including the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. While living in San Francisco in 2001, Bates worked as a DJ and techno artist and later that year co-founded Mercury Soul, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that mounts club shows that combine classical music and DJ sets. He is best known for his symphonies that mix Romantic-era style with modern sounds, such as electronic music and recordings of machinery.

His multimedia work, Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra, is a 25-minute work that integrates film, animation, and pre-recorded sound with a live orchestra. The piece premiered in March of 2020 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its soundtrack won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Classical Album. This animated film introduces the instruments of the orchestra and explores the fundamental connections between music, sound, performance, creativity, and technology. 

Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) was a Czech composer, regarded in his home country as the father of Czech music. He is known for pioneering music that identified with the aspirations to a cultural and political revival by the Czech people. His music was greatly influenced by his home country, from its politics and history to the legends and landscapes of Bohemia. While living in Prague in the early 1860s, Smetana became one of the leaders of the new genre of Czech opera. The Bartered Bride, one of his most well-known works, premiered in 1866 at the Provisional Theatre in Prague; while it was not immediately popular, it gained widespread popularity after a revised and extended version was premiered in 1870. The opera is a light comedy performed in two acts with music that incorporates traditional Bohemian dance forms, including the polka and furiant. The overture was composed before the rest of the opera and is often played as a concert piece independently, like you will hear today.