Join Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Grammy award winner Yannick Nézet-Séguin for an evening of powerful musical storytelling. The program features William L. Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, a groundbreaking 1934 masterpiece that blends African American spirituals with classical symphonic traditions. Premiered by Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra, the work is celebrated for its stirring melodies and rhythmic vitality.

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Yannick Leads Mahler & Dawson

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Rachmaninoff’s unforgettable melodies, emotional depth, technical brilliance, and rich orchestral textures are instantly recognizable and stay with the listener long after the music ends. His Second Piano Concerto expresses a wide range of emotions, from passionate intensity to melancholic longing, often reflecting the composer’s own personal experiences. The melody in the second movement inspired Eric Carmen’s bestselling tune “All By Myself.”

Echoes of Heritage

Maryland Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero opens the rich treasure chest of American music. Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call captures the relentless energy of the port of Norfolk, Virginia. Pianist Clayton Stephenson performs Gershwin’s jazz and blues-infused Concerto in F. Charles Ives composed his delightful and quirky Variations on “America” when he was only 17. Audiences at the 1934 premiere of Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony were so moved that they erupted in applause at the end of each movement. Decades later, the extraordinary work has returned to the standard repertoire with accolades.

Variations on America

State College of Florida - SCF Bradenton

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

The NSO brings you William Dawson’s stirring Negro Folk Symphony—a work one New York critic called “the most distinctive and promising American symphonic proclamation which has so far been achieved.” Joshua Weilerstein completes the program with Bernstein’s ever-popular Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Gershwin’s jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue.

Joshua Weilerstein conducts Bernstein & Dawson | John Kimura Parker plays Gershwin

Kennedy Center

Hope and Honor

East Tennessee State University

An HSO favorite, Sirena Huang, returns to the Belding Stage to perform the famous Sibelius violin concerto. We’re thrilled to have her back for our Valentine’s weekend concerts. It makes sense to play something romantic, of course, so Don Juan comes to mind.  There’s no need to take a trip to experience something exotic; come to the Hartford Symphony and let the music take you away.

Sirena Plays Sibelius

Belding Theater

A once-in-a-lifetime concert with Brian Raphael Nabors’ Letters from Birmingham (2022), William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony (1934), and Stars Fell on Alabama (1934), arranged by ASO’s fourth music director Amerigo Marino. Join the ASO as we record this concert to preserve the Alabama legacy as never done before.

Inspired by Alabama

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Celebrating America 250

Neumann University

Chicago Sinfonietta commissioned a bold new symphonic tribute honoring the 100th birthday of jazz icon Miles Davis—born in Alton, Illinois and raised just outside Chicago. Composed by Chicago Sinfonietta’s very own Assistant Principal Violist Seth Pae, this powerful premiere reimagines the boundary-pushing spirit of a legend who forever changed the sound of American music.

William Dawson

Events

Upcoming events

May 3, 2026

Celebrating America 250 · Delaware County Symphony

8 - 10 May, 2026

American Rhapsody · Chicago Sinfonietta

Past events

Mar 26, 2026

Yannick Leads Mahler & Dawson · Curtis Institute of Music

Feb 27 - Mar 1, 2026

Echoes of Heritage · Annapolis Symphony Orchestra

About

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