Scarlet Symphony Mvt. I - Hester, the Adulterer — Yuri Lee

Nov. 2021 - April 2022 (for full orchestra)

Inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, this piece illustrates the eloquent, stirring story of Hester Prynne, a resident of the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony who conceives a daughter through an affair and is forced to suffer through a life of social degradation, repentance, and loneliness. Each movement focuses on a major character of the novel and explores the themes of sin, knowledge, the nature of evil, human identity, and female independence.

Scarlet Symphony Mvt. 1 - Hester, the Adulterer

Yuri Lee

Hester, the Adulterer: The town awakes, restless and anxious as the people gather to watch Hester Prynne emerge from the prison and make her way to the scaffold, where she will be publicly condemned. Women in the crowd squawk and complain about the embroidered badge of a letter “A”, a symbol of her crime as an adulterer, beautifully stitched in gold and scarlet. It is as if the first violins are singing: “Hester Prynne, the adulterer, there she is up there. Look at her with her red dress and gold thread” (m.24-26). Hester’s inner thoughts, represented by the solo violin, are overwhelmed by the surrounding turbulence of shaming and alienation.

National YoungArts 2023 Finalist Winner

Orchestra Winner of The National Young Composers Challenge 2022.

Winner of the Juilliard Pre-College Composition Competition 2022.

Performed by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at the National Young Composers Challenge Composium on April 2nd, 2023.