Roots and Branches of American music

Czech composer Antonín Dvořák made a profound impression on American musicians through his insistence that American composers find a way to make use of native elements in pursuit of a truly national music. In this program, we hear two of the flowering branches of that pursuit, and a masterpiece by the composer whose vision was an inspiration.

The program will open with excerpts from “Omar,” the opera for which Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music. We will hear the Overture as well as Julie’s Aria, with GaDa Lambert, soprano. “Omar” tells the story of Omar Ibn Said, an Islamic scholar who was captured and enslaved in the early nineteenth century, and incorporates elements of American music, along with Arabian and West African sources .

The Poem for Orchestra by William Grant Still, a composer who was deeply inspired by Dvořák’s vision for American music, rounds out the first half of the program.

The second half will feature Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, one of the towering masterpieces of the romantic era, with soloist Jameson Platte, a long-time collaborator with our orchestra.