Concert first performed on March 8, 2014.
Get in touch with your spiritual side as we explore three works by American composers influenced by different forms of the sacred. Copland’s Appalachian Spring takes a traditional Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts,” and paints majestic strokes to evoke a traditional simplicity of American rural life.
Theofanidis was inspired to compose Lighting, with Life… by several anonymous American Indian poems with a common thread of a supernatural sense of nature, and he was deeply influenced by September 11th occurred as he was writing the piece. We are excited for Music Director Jacob Sustaita to take a break from the podium to perform as the featured viola soloist for this piece.
Finally, Still’s Afro-American Symphony combines the symphonic form with blues progressions and rhythms as well as with African American spirituals.
Conducted by Douglas Diamond
Works Performed
- Theofanidis, Christopher, Lightning with Life, in Four Colors Comes Down with soloist Jacob Sustaita, viola
- Still, William Grant, Symphony #3 “Afro-American”
- Copland, Aaron, Appalachian Spring
Dates Performed
- March 8, 2014