In April 2025 the US premiere of Sibelius’s opera The Maiden in the Tower took place at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. It was performed in concert by Maria Bozich (the Maiden), Roy Hage (the Lover), Joel Balzun (the Bailiff) and Whitney Robinson (the Chatelaine) with the Faculty Recital Orchestra and Chorus of New England Conservatory conducted by Joseph Bozich.

Sibelius One member Kathleen Roland-Silverstein, whose performance guide to the songs of Jean Sibelius is currently in preparation (Oxford University Press), served as language coach for this production.

A recording of this ground-breaking performance can now be seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KzuYZ2DtKyA?si=80b2hi1vfTimdsnQ

Joseph Bozich writes about this rarely-heard score: ‘what stands is music neither so elusive as the symbolism of Debussy nor so literal as the realism of Puccini […] As a piece of concert music, […] the composition survives quite well […] while in the opera house its long orchestral interludes may seem out-of-scale with the dramatic action, on the symphonic stage they exhibit balance and beauty in the realm of program music […] the music is serious and compelling, and worth hearing and enjoying live.’