Harpist solo is superb; ASO powers Prokofiev

Harp solos are rare enough, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra doesn’t highlight its members as soloists as often as it used to.

Which makes Saturday night’s tour de force by Alisa Coffey, the orchestra’s principal harpist, even more “forceful.”

Coffey was superb in the “Concert Piece for Harp and Orchestra,” a charming, single-movement work by Gabriel Pierne.

Judging from the whoops at Coffey’s entrance and the long, warm ovation after, there were a lot of fans of the harp, Coffey or both in the surprisingly large audience for the Masterworks concert at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall.

The orchestra, excellent in support as always, pulled back when necessary, but even in the piece’s quieter portions, Coffey’s playing ably filled the hall.

In the second half of the concert, guest conductor Akiko Fujimoto was in total command on the podium in her own chronological selection of eight movements, derived from the three suites that Sergei Prokofiev compiled from his ballet “Romeo and Juliet.”

Fujimoto, music director of the the Mid-Texas Symphony in Seguin, making her second podium appearance (she first conducted this orchestra in April 2022) and presumably auditioning for the orchestra’s vacant music director position, also showed off her chops in Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture No. 3. Her greatest success was in the dynamics, which in turn brought out the most vivid of the piece’s dramatic elements.

Coffey, Fujimoto and the orchestra repeat the program at 3 p.m. today at Robinson, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 6661761, Extension 1, or online at