Composer

More diversity in classical music! This is the objective which prompted the Chineke! Orchestra, founded 2015 in London, as a catalysator for change in order to achieve current diversity targets within the classical music world. As part of their joint European tour with the Cape Town Opera from South Africa, they will present George Gershwin’s masterpiece Porgy and Bess in a new semi-staged production at the Musikfest Berlin. Kwamé Ryan will conduct.

Chineke! Orchestra / Cape Town Opera

Berliner Philharmoniker

MOSY opens the season with a concert shaped by American sound: bold, lyrical, restless, and full of character.

EPSG:4326

Made in America: a 250th Celebration

Missouri Theatre Columbia

Summertime, It Ain’t Necessarily So, I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’: in Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin strings together one hit after another. That can make it easy to forget that he did not compose a glittering Broadway musical but a groundbreaking serious opera — even if it sounds less like Wagner or Verdi and more like spirituals and jazz. It tackles unemployment and poverty, drugs and murder — and at its center is the tragic love story between the disabled beggar Porgy and the troubled Bess. Above all, however, the opera takes place within an African American community — for the first time in the history of musical theater. That was an act of courage in the 1930s, at the height of racial discrimination — one just as bold as Gershwin’s insistence that Porgy and Bess be performed exclusively by Black singers. At Lucerne Festival, you can experience America’s most famous and successful opera with the ensemble of Cape Town Opera, South Africa’s only opera company. And the acclaimed Chineke! Orchestra — returning to Lake Lucerne after its enthusiastic reception in the summers of 2022 and 2024 — is likewise composed predominantly of People of Color.

Chineke! Orchestra | Cape Town Opera | Enrique Mazzola

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

Kick off our season of American icons with music from New York, by New Yorkers! We’re featuring music by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Aaron Copland, all New Yorkers who created some of the most quintessentially American music of the 20th century. From their apartments in The Big Apple, they captured the sounds not just of New York but the American West and beyond. And in a tribute to the world beyond New York, we will perform Kansas-based composer Alyssa Morris’s Tlapali, Tlahuilli, a dazzling orchestral re-telling of the Aztec myth depicting how the world received its color and light, featuring the principal woodwinds of the SSO.

The Big Apple

Missouri State University

Paris! Breathless, colourful, racy and full of secrets. This is true today as it was 100 years ago, when the young American George Gershwin frequented the cafés of Montmartre, listening to the sounds of the big city and overcome with homesickness for New York, that other glamorous metropolis. In Gershwin’s musical portrait An American in Paris, revving motors, honking horns, the Cancan, Charleston, blues and ragtime merge in an irresistible symphony of the big city – a audible journey that is so concrete and thrilling that one could actually cancel one’s own city trip. The human soul with all its flights of fancy and abysses, love, desperation, death – and then there’s »Summertime«, possible the aria with the most cover versions in music history: the highlights from Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Besstransport us to a world of overpowering emotions.

Summertime

Cologne Philharmonie

Diverse. Devoted. Determined. In honor of America 250, the 80th anniversary of the Nashville Symphony, and the 20th anniversary of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, our opening program of the 2026/27 season celebrates the rich sonic kaleidoscope of American composers past and present.You’ll feel it all: from the boundless optimism of Joan Tower’s Made in America, a work for which the Nashville Symphony’s recording received our first GRAMMY® Award in 2008, to the solemn strains of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings marking the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001. 

Opening Weekend: An American Celebration

Shermerhorn Symphony Center

The Richmond Symphony’s Sound of the City Gala Concert celebrates the artists, influences, and musical traditions that continue to shape Richmond’s creative spirit.

Conducted by Naima Burrs and featuring guest artists Desirée Roots, Russell Wilson, Eddie Sundra, Marcus Tenney, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville, Andrew Randazzo, and Sam Fribush, the evening moves through jazz, swing, soul, funk, and orchestral collaborations inspired by the evolving sound of American music.

Sound of the City Gala Concert

Dominion Energy Center

Los Angeles Ballet makes its Hollywood Bowl debut, teaming up with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the first time ever, in a program of orchestral and dance delights. LAB’s Artistic Director Melissa Barak choreographs a new ballet set to Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari—a spiritual and celebratory piece about music’s power to heal, transform, and expose the intangible. LAB dancers also take on Balanchine’s jazzy choreography, described as “tap dance on pointe,” from the 1970 ballet of Gershwin songs titled Who Cares?

Los Angeles Ballet at the Bowl

Hollywood Bowl

The Festival Strings Lucerne and Daniel Dodds are tying together a delightful garland of the loveliest melodies and dances from the New World in keeping with this summer’s theme, “American Dreams.” Though the program begins with a Czech composer — Antonín Dvořák, with the vibrant and feather-light Scherzo from his Serenade for Strings — it fits perfectly, since Dvořák was the “midwife” who helped American music discover its own identity. The African American composer Florence Price carries his musical language forward: her touching Andante cantabile goes straight to the heart. Also on board is the “Bad Boy of Music,” George Antheil, with a cheeky Allegro from his First Serenade. John Corigliano sends us traveling toward a better world filled with pleasure and brightness in his sonorous Voyage, inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem L’Invitation au voyage. George Gershwin enchants with a gentle lullaby, and Leonard Bernstein invites us to waltz. And how to top all that? With the Hoe-Down from Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo, of course — a square dance in classic country style.

Festival Strings Lucerne | Daniel Dodds | Karl-Heinz Schütz

The program, inspired by the spirit of America250, celebrates the diverse musical traditions and voices that have shaped our nation artistically. Featuring works by American composers, this free outdoor concert offers something for audiences of all ages. Whether you’re a lifelong concertgoer or discovering the orchestra for the first time, you will enjoy this unforgettable concert.

Pops in the Park

Quiet Waters Park

Downs Park

Of the People closes Litha Symphony’s 2026 season with a celebration of the composers who defined the American orchestral voice. From the sparkling wit of Bernstein's Candide Overture to the jazz-infused brilliance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and the monumental power of Copland's Symphony No. 3, the program captures the bold spirit and cultural richness of American music.

Of the People

Church of the Holy Apostles

What does America sound like? Perhaps like Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin’s early stroke of genius. Just listen to the opening clarinet solo with its long, swooping glissando and you immediately picture the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, Broadway, or a smoky New York jazz club. Born in 2001, Alexander Malofeev – Russian by birth and now based in Berlin — will perform this “greatest hit” with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

Lucerne Symphony Orchestra | Michael Sanderling | Alexander Malofeev

This ensemble is a true cult favorite. When the brass players of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra gather around trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich and trombonist Jörgen van Rijen to form a brass band, the atmosphere reaches fever pitch in no time at all. All the more so at this summer’s appearance, which is devoted to the theme of “American Dreams.” Gershwin's Strike Up the Band injects an irresistible jolt of swing and high spirits.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra 4 Soloists and Brass Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra

The National Symphony Orchestra makes its first appearance at the Hollywood Bowl, ever, under Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, celebrating the multitudes contained within the idea of America.

Gershwin, Bernstein & More

When the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra comes to Gustav Adolfs Torg, an evening of music awaits, spanning different eras and worlds. The programme ranges from Gershwin’s Summertime and Piazzolla’s Buenos Aires to Hugo Alfvén’s The Herdmaiden’s Dance. The evening continues with Stravinsky’s The Firebird and concludes with Ravel’s Boléro, as the music gradually builds to a powerful crescendo. The concert also marks Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s first appearance as Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Trumpeter Ellinor Bengtson performs as soloist.

From the Firebird to Boléro

Gustav Adolfs torg

Conducted by the National Symphony Orchestra’s music director Gianandrea Noseda, the orchestra celebrates American composers and musical contributions to film, Broadway, and opera. Experience the unique musical-visual project that’s sweeping the nation with composer Peter Boyer’s American Mosaic paired with Americana photo historian Joe Sohm’s stunning imagery from across all 50 states. Afterwards, enjoy classic renditions of works from Bernstein’s beloved West Side Story and witty operetta Candide, plus Gershwin’s lively, jazz-influenced score of An American in Paris.

Gershwin, Bernstein & American Mosaic

Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts

Go West! To open the summer Festival, Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra explore a range of “American Dreams.” First up is George Gershwin, who fused classical music and jazz so brilliantly that the old divide between highbrow and popular music simply falls away. His snappy Cuban Overture, inspired by a visit to Havana, practically dances on rumba rhythms. In contrast, his grand Concerto in F — which Chailly considers “the first American piano concerto” — takes its cues from the Charleston and the blues. Gershwin called its finale “a rhythmic orgy”: the perfect showcase for a boundary-pushing artist like the 34-year-old Frank Dupree, with his overflowing energy and infectious joy in performance.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra | Riccardo Chailly | Frank Dupree | soloists of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)

A first for the Festival: our new Executive and Artistic Director, Sebastian Nordmann, kicks off the Summer Festival by inviting everyone to a big party – free of charge. In the Concert Hall of the KKL Luzern, Riccardo Chailly and the fabulous Lucerne Festival Orchestra will set the mood with Gershwin and Bernstein, rumba and mambo – the perfect prelude to an unforgettable Cuban Night. Afterward, you can head over directly to the open-air “Classical Music for All” concert on the Europaplatz.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra | Riccardo Chailly | soloists of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)

Lucerne Festival

The exceptional National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America performs three vibrant 20th-century masterpieces. These talented young musicians are joined by Festival regular, American conductor Karina Canellakis, praised by Gramophone for her ‘finesse and fire’.

Gershwin & Bartók

Usher Hall

Ask any music lover to name an important American orchestral work, and there’s a good chance the answer will be George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Originally written for Paul Whiteman’s jazz orchestra with solo piano in 1924, the piece entered the concert music repertoire in a plush arrangement by Ferde Grofé—but it’s the lean, stripped-down original that best illustrates Gershwin’s groundbreaking synthesis of classical music’s disciplined elegance and the swinging spontaneity of jazz. Countless composers since Gershwin’s day have incorporated elements of jazz in their works: Aaron Copland’s bluesy trumpet in Quiet City, William Bolcom’s buoyant bounce, the brass swagger and driving pulse of John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine. And the improvising violinist and composer Mads Tolling, formerly of Turtle Island String Quartet, show with his bluesy concerto Yggdrasil that classical music and jazz continue to make a potent pairing.

Rhapsody in Blue: Music From The City

Southern Vermont Arts Center

Making his Festival debut, Kedrick Armstrong conducts the Grant Park Orchestra in Gershwin’s jaunty An American In Paris. Experience the propulsive energy of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No. 1 and Duke Ellington’s The Three Black Kings alongside Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s lyrical Violin Concerto with soloist Gabriela Lara, an alumna of the Festival’s String Fellowship program.

Gershwin An American in Paris

Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Gabriela Lara | Grant Park Music Festival

Hailed as "the preeminent modern dance organization of our time" by none other than Yo-Yo Ma, Mark Morris Dance Group returns to Caramoor with its signature blend of wit, grace, and profound musicality. Morris, celebrated as the most musical of living choreographers, treats the audience to a feast for eyes and ears. This performance captures the sheer joy and human authenticity that make this company an enduring treasure.

Mark Morris Dance Group

Venetian Theater at Caramoor

Close the season on the grand piano with pianist Stewart Goodyear taking center stage. Featuring Goodyear’s own genre-blending works—offering a sneak peek of an upcoming WCO recording—this program builds toward one of the most iconic pieces in American music: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Jazz-inflected, virtuosic, and unforgettable, it’s a piano marathon and a bold and satisfying sendoff to summer on the Square. Learn more about Stewart Goodyear.

Rhapsody Squared

Capitol Square

Dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times, Conrad Tao has been playing Gershwin’s 1924 rhapsody with orchestras across the country for nearly two decades. “It’s emblematic of the time and place, but it’s also timeless,” says Tao. “Improvisation is baked into Rhapsody in Blue. There are places in the score where the orchestra rests, and the pianist just takes off. That’s one of the reasons it continues to resonate with audiences today.”

Rhapsody in Blue & Shostakovich

Violinist Elissa Lee Koljonen (’94), guitarist Hao Yang (’22), and cellist Romain-Olivier Gray present a program celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, featuring works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, George Gershwin, George Rochberg (’48), and others, including a special arrangement of Pat Metheny’s Always and Forever arranged by Curtis guitar faculty member Jason Vieaux.

Gershwin, Corigliano, and more

Curtis Institute of Music

Academy Park

For years, our summer concert at Kleinhans Music Hall has been a thank you to our Donors and Subscribers. This year, we’re excited to welcome everyone because the BPO loves Buffalo and wants to share the music with the whole community! Led by JoAnn Falletta, this concert features a lively program with pieces the BPO musicians love but rarely perform. Celebrate the music, summer, and the community that makes it all possible!

Patron Appreciation Concert

Kleinhans Music Hall

Clarence Town Park

“Scenes from the City” captures the pulse of urban life, where ambition and restless energy collide in a vivid portrait of modern America. Bernstein’s On the Town bursts with Broadway swagger and jazzy syncopation, tracing the adventures of three sailors on a whirlwind leave in New York City. Gershwin’s An American in Paris rounds out the evening, blending brash city rhythms with lyrical nostalgia in a soundscape that feels cosmopolitan, exuberant, and unmistakably American.

Scenes from the City

Riverwalk Center

The wind quintet WindSync embraces the classics and the growing contemporary repertoire with a fresh sensibility. Versatile and vibrant, the group plays “many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts). In the span of one performance, they can cover vast musical ground from revitalized standards to freshly inked works to folk and songbook, the common thread telling a compelling story about music history and our human selves.

Bronze Medalist at the 2025 Van Cliburn Competition, American pianist Evren Ozel has won numerous honors and awards; most recently Evren was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2023. Other accolades include second prize and special prizes for Best Mazurka and Best Polonaise at the 2020 U.S. National Chopin Competition, first prize at the 2016 Boston Symphony Concerto Competition, second prize and the Mozart and Chopin special prizes at the 2018 Dublin International Piano Competition, second prize at the 2016 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and scholarships from the U.S Chopin Foundation and Young Arts Foundation.

WindSync with EVREN OZEL, piano

Maverick Concert Hall

North Park Community School #50

North Park Community School PS #50

Curtis on Tour in Siasconset, Nantucket, MA

Siasconset Casino Association

CMS’s summer tradition returns for its 11th year. Get the summer’s hottest ticket, featuring favorite chamber music works in the cool atmosphere of Alice Tully Hall. Stay after the performance and get to know the artists in the lobby with a complimentary glass of wine.

Summer Evenings III 2026

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

The concert begins with Mozart’s Trio in E major, a graceful and lyrical work highlighting his gift for chamber music. From there, the program moves to the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Maurice Ravel, the great French composer of the early 20th century, whose music shimmers with color and atmosphere.

Saratoga Springs, NY

Skidmore College

Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble  believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagine their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience.

Catalyst Quartet

Summer Evenings II 2026

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center

Concert for Unity

Elim Christian Fellowship

Presented with support from Niagara Falls State Park, Beaver Island State Park, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and in-park partner, Montante International.

Beaver Island State Park

Join the National Repertory Orchestra for a star-spangled celebration at Rainbow Park in Silverthorne! This year’s Fourth of July Spectacular commemorates our nation’s 250th and Colorado’s 150th anniversaries with A Star-Spangled 250, led by the one conductor uniquely suited to bring the scale, spirit, and celebration of this moment to life—Carl Topilow.

This free outdoor concert is a family-friendly event filled with music, fun, and patriotic spirit—an NRO tradition that brings the community together for an unforgettable Independence Day experience. Families will enjoy the NRO Instrument Petting Zoo, where kids can explore different instruments and get hands-on musical fun. Wear your red, white, and blue, and soak in the festive atmosphere with friends, neighbors, and music lovers of all ages.

Fourth of July Spectacular (Silverthorne)

Rainbow Park

Christopher Bell conducts the Grant Park Orchestra in this annual Chicago tradition. The family-friendly celebration includes patriotic favorites alongside Gershwin’s Three Preludes with principal clarinetist Dario Brignoli and Carlos Gardel’s Tango (Por Una Cabeza) with concertmaster Jeremy Black.

Independence Day Salute

Millennium Park

The love for music is in Czech genes. There is good reason for the saying: Every Czech is a musician. Czech musicians are rightly considered to be the absolute best in the interpretation of classical music in the world. Do you want to meet them live?Come to a concert of the Prague Music Orchestra chamber ensemble, which originated in the beginning of the 21st century and is one of the most renowned Czech musical ensembles today. It is distinguished by a unique, cultivated sound and it is a representative of highly appreciated interpretation art.

The Best of Classics & Opera with Ballet

Municipal House

The programme is a love letter to 20th-century song in all its forms. 

From the soaring romanticism of Alma Mahler and Richard Strauss to the bittersweet elegance of Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim, this concert brings together worlds that rarely meet. 

You’ll hear music from beloved films and musicals alongside lush orchestral arrangements of song cycles and solo pieces all carefully curated to tell a story that is moving, varied and richly expressive.

Fantasia Orchestra with Niamh O’Sullivan

Smith Square Hall

A summer night at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor with JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, celebrating the spirit of America through music.  From sweeping orchestral favorites to iconic themes, Western New Yorkers can gather together for a powerful celebration of America250, culminating in a glittering fireworks display over Lake Erie.

Sound & Sky on the Waterfront

Terminal B at the Outer Harbor

This stellar festival gala concert will welcome one of the greatest figures on the contemporary opera scene. Bryn Terfel, an operatic legend with the charisma of a world star, will perform a programme that transcends the boundaries of genres and styles. He will be joined by Slovak soprano Slávka Zámečníková. The evening will feature famous opera arias, musical theatre melodies and distinctive Welsh songs, promising an exceptional experience full of emotion and vocal virtuosity.

Opera Gala – Bryn Terfel & Slávka Zámečníková

Litomyšl Castle

The Knights celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with a bold new festival across iconic New York City parks and the historic Caramoor Center. In a three-part musical showcase, audiences will experience the multifaceted potential and power of American music—rooted in history, alive in the present, shaped by many voices, and brimming with possibility.

The Knights at Caramoor with Conrad Tao

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts

Experience a vibrant celebration of the American sound as the boundary-breaking orchestral collective The Knights joins forces with visionary pianist Conrad Tao for an afternoon of fearless music-making. Led by Artistic Directors Eric and Colin Jacobson, the program anchors the spirit of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, featuring Tao’s acclaimed, "explosive" interpretation within a broader narrative of musical innovation. From the pastoral beauty of Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite and Margaret Bonds’ soulful Troubled Water to contemporary rhapsodies by Jessie Montgomery and the ensemble's own Christina Courtin, this performance bridges the gap between classical tradition and modern energy.

The Knights & Conrad Tao

In 1913, one of the greatest scandals in music history rocked the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris: the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet music, The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. Stravinsky painted his musical pictures with archaic-sounding rhythms and unbridled energy, provoking storms of outrage from the opening night audience. Today, the work is a classic and established as one of the seminal compositions of the 20th century, both on the ballet stage and in the concert hall. Similarly energetic to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is the Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra. 

The Rite of Spring

Casino Bern

Musician and broadcaster Jess Gillam has worked wonders to break down the barriers that so often prevent people from exploring unfamiliar music. Her recital crosses genres and centuries with ease to create a delectable lunchtime menu, complete with Nadia Boulanger’s gorgeous Cantique, the fizzing energy of Graham Fitkin’s Gate and the seductive charm of Sidney Bechet’s enduring hit Petite Fleur.

Jess Gillam saxophone; Sam Becker double bass; Zeynep Özsuca piano

Wigmore Hall

Celebrate Father’s Day and the American spirit through music with Bay Phil’s powerful classical program — a vibrant fusion of tradition, rhythm, and innovation.

This extraordinary concert blends beloved classics, blues, and American heritage in honor of our sesquicentennial year. 

It’s the perfect way to celebrate Father’s Day — with fathers, family, friends, and unforgettable music.

America in Rhythm & Rhapsody

Chabot College

Three Generations Of Passion

Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz

“Dreams of a New World” opens our American Adventures season with music that captures the optimism and imagination at the heart of the American spirit. Bernstein’s Candide Overture sparkles with wit and high-voltage energy, launching the evening in a blaze of brilliance. Anchoring the program, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” crowns the evening with sweeping melodies and spiritual-inflected themes, reflecting both a European composer’s fascination with America and the enduring promise of possibility that defines it. 

Dreams of a New World

Start your weekend with our must-see Friday night concert series and social experience, Symphonic Piazza. Prepare to escape, mingle, and be entertained as you enjoy the perfect combination of a shorter format concert with enjoyable and engaging lobby activities to share with family, friends, and our musicians. It’s your new go-to date night! The fun continues in the lobby after the concert, as we’ll have even more memorable things for you to experience.

Rhapsody in Blue and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Hope for a better, more united, more empathetic world inspired the programming of this concert, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. “I dare look up,” says Florence Price, the first African American composer, in her Song of Hope. Following in her footsteps, Margaret Bonds drew inspiration from the civil rights movement for her Montgomery Variations, dedicated to Martin Luther King.

Songs of Hope

Place des Arts

Following the conclusion of our 25/26 subscription season, join us for “A Community Gift and Dream — for the Love of Music” June 13-14, 2026.

A Community Gift and Dream — for the Love of Music

Overture Center for the Arts

Performing opera from a young age is a unique adventure that Opéra Junior has been offering to young people in Montpellier and the surrounding region for over 30 years. From the age of 4, children have the opportunity to be trained in singing, dance, and theater, and to discover all the professions of opera, working alongside composers, conductors, musicians, directors, costume designers, set designers, and professional technicians. Let yourself be charmed by the talent and energy of our young performers!

Junior Opera

Saint Vincent Church

Witness history at the world premiere of Kennedy Center Honoree Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln,” a new work that brings one of America’s most iconic figures to life. Led by Grammy-winning conductor Karen Kamensek, the program continues with Barber’s poetic Violin Concerto and Gershwin’s enormously popular An American in Paris.

Philip Glass’ “Lincoln” Dalene plays Barber

Kennedy Center

As part of the CSO’s tribute to 250 years of American history, Jean-Yves Thibaudet takes on the extravagant, jazz-infused piano solo in Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety, based on W. H. Auden’s poem about the quest for faith and meaning. Sumptuous orchestral highlights from Gershwin and Weill musicals frame a stirring selection of spirituals performed with the Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir.

Gaffigan, Thibaudet & Bernstein

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Katelyn Moon, violin

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

In his 2023 CSO subscription debut, Conrad Tao gave a “dazzling, staggering” performance of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, wrote the Chicago Tribune, in which Tao “carried his melodies masterfully.” As part of the CSO’s monthlong focus on American music, the Illinois native returns with a selection of Gershwin song arrangements interspersed with works by Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Schoenberg and Robert Schumann.

Conrad Tao

Build the excitement leading up to our nation’s 250th birthday! Festivities include iconic musical hits from American composers, Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, Bernstein’s Overture to Candide,Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, and musical favorites from stage and screen. Don’t miss this stellar season finale!

American Salute

Folsom Lake College

Featuring pianist Thomas Pandolfi and the debut of the Naptown Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus.

American Voices United Through Song

Maryland Hall

The orchestra’s waterfront concert is part of the nationwide America 250 celebration — a chance to come together and salute the American spirit through music. The program mixes patriotic favorites like Armed Forces Salute and America the Beautiful with Tchaikovsky’s explosive 1812 Overture, plus John Williams’ movie themes from Star Wars and Jaws, Broadway hits and classical crowd-pleasers.

Free Symphony by the Sea

Coachman Park

These Seasons are “half” because they interweave famous jazz standards with Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The narrative thread follows the cycle of the seasons, understood not only as a natural phenomenon, but as a metaphor for love and the human condition. A journey that reflects the parable of life: every end already contains a new beginning.

Italian Philharmonic Orchestra: THE HALF SEASONS

Gaetano Donizetti Theater

Sarah Heimberg, trumpet

Our season concludes with three iconic compositions and two orchestral world premieres. Bernstein’s toe-tapping Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, Copland’s distinctively American Appalachian Spring Suite, and Gershwin’s jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue are paired with two works rooted in Western New York. Michael Daugherty’s Niagara Falls is a musical journey through one of the world’s great scenic wonders, while Buffalo-born Paul Moravec’s Serenade—inspired by the Great Western Staircase at the New York State Capitol, a marvel of intricate sculpture and history—offers a stirring narrative of ascent and aspiration.

American Soundscapes

Michelle Cann, a champion of American composers and “pianist of sterling artistry” (Gramophone), returns to perform a world premiere by Valerie Coleman—named one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” by The Washington Post. Conductor Kellen Gray frames the evening with works reflecting the breadth of our nation’s story: Dvořák’s American Suite, inspired by his time in the U.S., and the Catfish Row suite from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Cann plays Coleman

Yannick celebrates two toweringly gifted composers, seminal American voices of the 20th century. Gershwin’s Piano Concerto dances through cityscapes, brash and brilliant. Bernstein, whose works for the concert hall, opera stage, Broadway, and film formed the soundtrack of the century, is represented by two of his Broadway masterworks, Candide and West Side Story, and his impassioned “Jeremiah” Symphony, an epic chronicle of a prophet and a people. 

Gershwin and Bernstein

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

This electrifying Australian group, founded in 2007 by brothers Daniel Kowalik (violin) and Karol Kowalik (cello), and friends Thomas Chawner (viola) and David Dalseno (violin), is one of the most exciting string quartets of its generation. Known for their engaging performances, they inspire reviews like this one from the Canberra CityNews: “incredible passion, fire and intensity. The audience erupted in thunderous applause and cheers. It was an electric and enthralling evening of the finest music making.” They are joined by award-winning pianist Olga Kern in what promises to be an evening you won’t want to miss!

Orava Quartet & Olga Kern, piano

Clay & Jay Barr Education Center

Music Arts Center

Celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a vibrant program of iconic works by 20th-century American composers. Gershwin’s unforgettable Rhapsody in Blue blends classical form with jazz flair and features noted San Diego pianist Dan Yu as soloist. Also included are Copland’s stirring Fanfare for the Common Man, the mystical beauty of Hovhaness’s Mysterious Mountain, selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Copland’s Rodeo (including the lively Hoe Down and tender Corral Nocturne), and Bernstein’s effervescent Overture to West Side Story. From sweeping vistas to urban rhythms, this finale concert captures the spirit, soul and story of America.

An American Celebration

Poway Center for the Performing Arts

Dayner Tafur-Díaz/Orchestra Giovanile Italiana

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

The Mark Morris Dance Group’s “Dances to American Music” is a vibrant celebration of the rich tapestry of American music and dance. Featuring choreography by the legendary Mark Morris, this dynamic program includes Going Away Party (music by Bob Wills), Three Preludes (music by George Gershwin), Northwest (music by John Luther Adams), and You’ve Got to be Modernistic (music by James P. Johnson). Mark Morris has captivated global audiences with his profound humanity, humor, and the unique ability to fuse live music and dance into an experience that transcends the ordinary.

Mark Morris Dance Group: Dances to American Music

McCarter Theatre Center

The Symphonic Band’s second spring-quarter concert takes as its focal point George Gershwin’s Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess, arranged for band by Donald Hunsberger. Enjoy hits from Gershwin’s 1935 opera including “Summertime,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

Symphonic Band

Northwestern University

Spend an evening in the Jazz Age with a musical feast of George Gershwin. Music Director Xian Zhang conducts three works that define his legacy as one of our great composers, effortlessly combining cosmopolitan music with the new language of jazz. We open the concert with a pianistic tour de force: the Concerto in F, in the hands of the incomparable Hélène Grimaud. Then Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture captures all the energy and poignancy of his opera, including Summertime and I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’. Last but certainly not least, An American in Paris takes a musical stroll through the streets of Paris, with any homesickness banished by the city’s exuberance, the French atmosphere and the street noises.

Xian Conducts Gershwin

Benaroya Hall

Join Artistic and Music Director Designate Alexander Shelley and pianist Conrad Tao for a bold celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. Experience Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F alongside the West Coast premiere of Peter Boyer and Joe Sohm's American Mosaic, a powerful reflection of America’s diverse and dynamic spirit. This concert honors our nation’s past, present, and future—an unforgettable tribute to 250 years of cultural innovation.

Composer

George Gershwin

Events

Upcoming events

Sep 19, 2026

America in Motion · Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra

Sep 19, 2026

America the Beautiful: A 250 Celebration · Oklahoma City Philharmonic

19 - 20 Sep, 2026

Opening Night: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue · Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra

19 - 20 Sep, 2026

Masterworks I – New World Symphony · Orchestra Iowa

23 - 24 Sep, 2026

Alessandro Carbonare, Francesca Dego and Alessandro Taverna · Teatro La Fenice

Past events

Sep 15, 2026

Chineke! Orchestra / Cape Town Opera · Berliner Philharmoniker

Sep 13, 2026

Made in America: a 250th Celebration · The Missouri Symphony

About

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