Composer

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

Liam Kantzler, bass trombone

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Observe a working rehearsal as the musicians and conductor put the finishing touches on the weekend’s concert program on Friday, February 6 at 10AM. Doors open at 9AM. Tickets are $17.14; coffee and donuts are included!

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Friday Coffee Dress – Price & Tchaikovsky

Ohio Theatre

Chamber Music/Visual Show

Sand Island Park

Jalen Dobson, trumpet

Experience one of Gershwin’s most iconic works, Rhapsody in Blue—a 1924 tour de force that helped define the Jazz Age. Originally written for solo piano and jazz band, this exhilarating piece fuses classical structure with the infectious energy of jazz. With its bold rhythms, sweeping melodies, and dazzling improvisatory spirit, Rhapsody in Blue remains a testament to Gershwin’s genius in bridging musical traditions.

Sounds of America II: Rhapsody in Blue & West Side Story

Willson Auditorium

Some pieces define composers, their technique and their sound. The SLS closes it’s 50th Season with a performance of two composers who created works that set their legacy in place. Florence Price’s Mississippi Suite was almost unknown, however. This was one of many works discovered after the composer’s death, in an attic, almost discarded. Luckily for us, it was saved! The work is 20th Century Americana at its finest, describing the Mississippi River through the people that lived on its banks, from Native Americans to settlers, to the descendants of Black slaves. The journey takes us both through history and time, culminating with a moving setting of the spiritual, Deep River. One of classical music’s most enduring works, Elgar’s Enigma Variations is a look at friendship, love, and the human psyche, through the lens of the composer’s imagination. The great English composer gives us intimate portraits of his friends, relations, co-workers, and fellow musicians, culminating in a rousing self-portrait of the composer himself, with an added pipe organ, for added affect! Join us as we close out our 50th Year of concerts!

Signature Sounds

University of Utah

Celebrate America’s 250th birthday with works exclusively by American composers—Bernstein’s West Side Story Dances, Price’s Symphony No. 1, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

250 Years of America

North Canyon High School

Guest conductor Donald Lee III leads a tribute to an iconic musical genre.

Gershwin All That Jazz

University of Nevada

When the Minnesota Orchestra launched its Listening Project in 2021, our goal was to present and record top-notch performances of music by underrepresented composers—in other words, to share music that many of us were not hearing. The project continues this season with Music Director Thomas Søndergård and soprano Janai Brugger.

More to Hear: The Listening Project

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis

One of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, Michelle Cann joins your Colorado Symphony to deliver a double-header piano showcase of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue – a uniquely American standard occupying the intersection between classical music, jazz, and Broadway – and Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. Price’s Late Romantic background and her deep understanding of African-American spiritual combine for stop-in-your-tracks-beautiful moments, which Cann brings to life in a work that was almost lost to time before being reconstructed from manuscripts just fifteen years ago.

Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue with Michelle Cann

Denver Performing Arts Complex

Get ready for a musical road trip across the United States! As we near the USA’s 250th birthday in 2026, join us for a concert full of patriotic fun. Tap your toes to Copland’s Hoe Down, experience the vibrant colors of Angélica Negrón’s Tornasol, and savor the elegance of Florence Price’s Andante and Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony. Then, let John Williams’ Superman March send you out on a heroic flourish.

Symphonic Sounds of Home: Music of the United States

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

All-Campus Band & Brass Band – Ally Capone, Rebecca Mulligan, and Nick Hinman, conductors

Musical Arts Center

‘Tremendous’ declared one critic when Nadine Benjamin made her Glyndebourne debut, and this dazzling British soprano has a voice that has to be heard to be believed. Today she joins the London Philharmonic Orchestra to bring all her radiance, her insight and her effortless dramatic flair to Eastbourne. How to follow that? Rising star (and LPO Fellow Conductor) Nefeli Chadouli explores the epic vistas and northern forests of Sibelius’s First Symphony: a young genius in a new nation, pouring all his imagination into music as wild as a winter storm and as wonderful as the Northern Lights.

Sibelius’s First

Congress Theatre

Elliott is no longer a “rising star.” The 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient has since performed with major orchestras across the country, including NY, Boston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. Mid-century composer Florence Price was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a classical composer. Beethoven’s First Symphony pays homage to his forbearers, Haydn and Mozart, but is very distinctly Ludwig’s unique and powerful voice.

Westchester Philharmonic: Majesty and Grace

Purchase College

Fanny, Florence & Sam

Jackson Theater, Sonoma Country Day School

For the season finale, the SSSO makes an appearance at UPH and Proctors! Joined by Saratoga Voices, the SSSO will present an inspiring celebration of music and poetry. Florence Price’s “Four Songs from the Weary Blues” brings the evocative words of Langston Hughes to life, while Vaughan Williams’ “Towards the Unknown Region” sets Walt Whitman’s poetry to sweeping, emotional music. The program closes with Mendelssohn’s enchanting “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” capturing Shakespeare’s timeless tale of magic, love, and mischief.

Concert IV: Poetic Echoes

Universal Preservation Hall

Proctors Theatre

The Campus String Ensemble is comprised of non-music major students, faculty members, staff, and alumni of the University of Michigan.

Campus Orchestra String Ensemble

Earl V. Moore Building

Join the acclaimed Pacifica Quartet and legendary film actor Sigourney Weaver for a moving evening of music and storytelling that celebrates the enduring spirit of American resilience and transformation.

Pacifica Quartet with narrator Sigourney Weaver

Sixth & I

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 (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) 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

560 Music Center

The Great Classics

Mechanics Bank Theater

Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue features an eclectic selection of Americana music sure to get you in the mood for the upcoming 250th Anniversary celebration! First up is the world premiere of American Patriot Hymn by Composer in Residence Jeff Lippencott, followed by Duke Ellington’s musical depiction of 1950’s Harlem. Grammy Award-winning pianist Michelle Cann is featured on Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue

Cheyenne Civic Center

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields present a stunning and varied programme of works by female composers, including a World Premiere from Eleanor Alberga, her Symphony No. 2 written for ASMF. The concert’s finale is with violinist Elena Urioste, who with ‘her airy, silvery tone and fine filigree detail’ (The Arts Desk) will perform Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The concerto in D Major, which despite its reference to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in the violin’s solo entrance and references throughout, is distinctly Price’s own style and launches into new musical ideas with the last movement ending the evening on a flourish.

Bridging Worlds: Alberga, Price, Shaw & Bacewicz with Elena Urioste

St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London

Join us at First Church OKC for a reflective Good Friday service featuring music by the Oklahoma Chamber Symphony. This solemn and moving service will include Florence Price’s Adoration and David Holsinger’s On a Hymning of Philip Bliss, offering moments of beauty and contemplation in honor of the day. All are welcome to attend.

First Church Good Friday Service

First Church OKC

Experience a performance of pure delight as Spotlight Artist Joshua Bell plays and leads Bruch’s First Violin Concerto—a masterwork of sweeping romanticism—and conducts favourites by Florence Price and Beethoven, including the composer’s exhilarating Symphony No. 7.

Joshua Bell Plays Bruch + Beethoven

David Pecaut Square

Cliburn Festival America 250: American Roots

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

An enticing selection of art songs spans familiar and overlooked repertoire from myriad styles, all rooted in great literature with settings of Walt Whitman, Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, and Strauss’s opulent Four Last Songs with texts by Hermann Hesse. South African soprano Golda Schultz, who has starred at the Opéra National de Paris, Metropolitan Opera, and BBC Proms, brings this program to life with her “remarkable depth and dimension” and “distinctively thrilling radiance” (Financial Times).

Golda Schultz, soprano (Baltimore Debut) Jonathan Ware, piano (Baltimore Debut)

Johns Hopkins University

America’s 250th birthday is in 2026, and every celebration needs good music! In this program of early American music, we look back in time at the early cultural life of our nation and discover the composers who created a uniquely American sound.

Free Concert at Chandor Gardens

Chandor Gardens

Free Concert at Klyde Warren Park

Klyde Warren Park

Michael Witt, conducting

Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall

Celebrating Women

Tobacco Quarter Hall 1

Chicago’s own Deeply Rooted Dance Theater joins us in an unstoppable collaboration, bringing Florence Price’s vibrant Dances in the Canebrakes to life through original choreography—honoring the first Black woman to have her music performed by a major American orchestra.

Still I Rise

Harris Theater

North Central College

The OPRL and Lucie Leguay embark on a journey to the heart of 20th- century America , with the nine Symphonic Dances from Bernstein's masterpiece West Side Story , reorganized into an orchestral suite by the composer in 1960. Commissioned by Nadia Boulanger, Copland's Organ Symphony (1924), a student of the great French pedagogue, blends modernism, jazz influences, and virtuosity, capturing the bold energy of the United States in the 1920s. Florence Price's work is experiencing a remarkable resurgence. Conceived on a Negro spiritual theme , her vibrant Concert Overture No. 1 , premiered in Chicago in 1939, embodies all the richness of her African-American roots.

West Side Story

Philharmonic Hall of Liege

Free Concert for Special Needs Students and their Families

Hill School of Fort Worth

Featuring Dr. Nathan Salazar, Lecturer of Saxophone, in collaboration with Ben Malkevitch.

Faculty Recital

Baldwin Wallace University

Set out for A Night on the Town with your Fayetteville Symphony! Dress up and experience the rush of city life as Kebra-Seyoun Charles performs their original bass concerto, Night Life. We will also be joined by a gospel choir to bring you beautiful settings of gospel songs. Fans of music that blends genres will love the way Night Life paints a musical picture.

A Night on the Town

Fayetteville State University

The night after her appearance with WMS at the Frauenthal, pianist Michelle Cann brings a solo performance to The Block. Cann has been described as “technically fearless” and is one of the most sought-after artists of her generation.

Michelle Cann – Classical Piano

The Block

One of the most exciting young pianists of the new generation, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has been taking the world by storm since her BBC Proms debut in 2022. She brings an exciting and eclectic programme of Claude Debussy, Ludwig van Beethoven and American composers Florence Price and William Grant Still, ending with Frédéric Chopin’s poetic third and fourth Ballades.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

Leeds Conservatoire

MSM Faculty Recital: Blake Hinson, double bass

Manhattan School of Music

For over 25 years, the Miró Quartet has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages, showcasing their “collective intelligence [and] uncanny precision” (Musical America). Their program includes excerpts from master works by Samuel Barber and Florence Price, as well as a PCMS co-commission for soprano and quartet by the genre-defying, Brooklyn-based composer Tamar-kali. The new work spotlights Philadelphia’s own soprano Karen Slack, who brings “the right mix of grace and fire” (Schmopera) to this much-anticipated local premiere.

Miró Quartet Karen Slack, soprano

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

A tribute to the iconic voices of American legends like Gershwin, Joplin, Marsalis, Florence Price, and Richard Smallwood.  Dedrick Bonner and the Singers of Soul will lift every voice and sing at the California Theatre.

American Voices: Lift Every Voice and Sing!

San Bernardino Symphony

From the Greek islands to the Basque Country and into the New World, Greek conductor Zoi Tsokanou transports us with the works of three composers who, using the means of the classical symphony orchestra, created monuments to their respective homelands. In his suite named after an island group in the Aegean Sea, Giannis Konstantinidis opens up a surprisingly entertaining world of sound. Maurice Ravel's cheerful piano concerto combines Basque folkloric sounds with bittersweet jazz, while the African-American composer Florence Price, in her first symphony, composed a mischievous yet majestic Juba dance instead of the classical Scherzo.

World leaps

Konzerthaus Klagenfurt

Doctoral Lecture Recital of Stacey Michelle Sharpe, violin

Longmire Alumni Building

Join WNO Conductor Laureate, Carlo Rizzi, the award-winning mezzo-soprano, Justina Gringytė (La forza del destino, Roberto Devereux) and WNO Orchestra for a concert that will win both hearts and minds.

Carlo Rizzi & Justina Gringytė with WNO Orchestra

Bute Park

Twenty-one-year-old standout pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason — the third virtuoso of the Kanneh-Mason clan — has captivated audiences at the BBC Proms, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and London’s Wigmore Hall, performing “straight from the heart, with care, sparkle, and self-possession” (BBC Music Magazine). Her wide-ranging recital program reflects her curiosity, featuring works by composers showcased on her Spring 2025 debut solo album for Sony Classical.Twenty-one-year-old standout pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason — the third virtuoso of the Kanneh-Mason clan — has captivated audiences at the BBC Proms, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and London’s Wigmore Hall, performing “straight from the heart, with care, sparkle, and self-possession” (BBC Music Magazine). Her wide-ranging recital program reflects her curiosity, featuring works by composers showcased on her Spring 2025 debut solo album for Sony Classical.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, piano (Baltimore Debut)

Love. Longing. Tragedy. The Fire of Love: Romeo and Juliet brings passion to the stage with Nurit Bar-Josef and the OKC Philharmonic—featuring music by Ravel, Price, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky.

The Fire of Love: Romeo and Juliet

Civic Center Music Hall

The revered pianist Garrick Ohlsson returns to the Schubert Club in a collaborative recital with GRAMMY award-winning violist Richard O’Neill, to perform a recital of works by Schubert and Rachmaninoff.

Garrick Ohisson, piano & Richard O’Neill, viola

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Experience the vibrant energy of Aaron Copland’s Rodeo. Four folk-inspired dances from the ballet come alive, bursting with frontier spirit and lively rhythms. Described as elegant and thoughtful (Cincinnati Business Courier), violinist Melissa White will capture the sounds of American classical music with the soul-stirring lyricism of Florence Price’s Second Violin Concerto. Finally, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.1 (“Winter Dreams”) will take us on a charming musical ride full of dreamy landscapes and emotional depth.

Price & Tchaikovsky

Observe a working rehearsal as the musicians and conductor put the finishing touches on the weekend’s concert.

Step into the Roaring Twenties with Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody, Milhaud’s jazz-inspired Creation, and works by Prokofiev, Price, and Ravel.

Rhapsody in Blue

Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

Eastman Wind Orchestra 2026

Eastman Theatre

Hailed as a “legend of the cello” by The New Yorker, Marcy Rosen joins forces with GRAMMY Award-winning violist Kim Kashkashian and the “invariably energetic” Catalyst Quartet (New York Times) for a rare performance of Erich Korngold’s Sextet in D Major—a work full of bustling energy and sweeping melodies. Against All Odds showcases music by composers who faced significant hardship and oppression during their lives.

Catalyst Quartet Kim Kashkashian, viola Marcy Rosen, cello

This concert conducted by Leslie Suganandarajah demonstrates that the USA has much to offer despite current turmoil. The Sri Lankan-born conductor has been Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater since 2019, where he brings together a broad spectrum of American music.
He begins with Anna Clyne, this season's Composer in Focus of the GSO, followed by the even more recent Trumpet Concerto by the already legendary jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, featuring Selina Ott, born in Austria in 1998, as soloist. And after the interval, a rarity: Florence Price, who made a name for herself at the beginning of the 20th century, was one of the first female composers in the USA.

Blues

Stadthalle Göttingen

Alexandra Dariescu has made it her mission to create concert programmes that give underrepresented female composers equal billing with their better-known male colleagues.

Alexandra Dariescu

Southbank Centre

Celebrate 250 years of the American Spirit with this dynamic symphonic concert! Crowd favorite Samantha Rose Williams returns to sing Alan Fletcher’s “Three American Songs” and selections by Florence Price. The evening culminates in the vibrant and iconic sounds of Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story, a testament to the nation’s enduring artistic energy.

American Songs

Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts

Kicking off 2026 and the “Festival of American Voices,” this concert presents a vivid survey of American classical music, highlighting voices from different cultural backgrounds. From the rhythmic energy of Chokfi’ by Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate to Florence Price’s evocative Mississippi River Suite, which weaves together spirituals into symphonic form, the program reflects the richness of American heritage. Aaron Copland’s Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo, with its iconic “Hoe-Down,” captures the spirit of the American West, while a new work by composer Peter B. Kay adds a fresh local perspective. Together, these pieces create a musical patchwork celebrating the diversity and depth of American artistry.

Voices of a Nation

Converse University

An evening of classical and improvised music with Derek Menchan, ‘cello and bass, accompanied by Kasan Belgrave, woodwinds, Brendon Davis, piano, & Jeannette Fang, piano.

Derek Menchan, cello

Wayne State University

Conducted by Adam Johnson and featuring Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue and a new trumpet concerto by Wynton Marsalis.

Back by Popular Demand: American Rhapsody

River Center Theatre

Experience the talent and creativity of Colburn’s distinguished faculty artists as they perform their own curated programs with friends and students. This concert features quartet and quintet works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, George Walker, and Florence Price.

Faculty Recital: Fiato Quartet and Micah Yui, Piano

Colburn School

Dreams

Saenger Theatre

Local dance students perform to waltzes, tangos, and other traditional dance pieces played by The Syracuse Orchestra.

Kids Dance!

Inspiration Hall

Journey through the rich tapestry of African American musical traditions with Florence Price's evocative Ethiopia's Shadow in America and Carlos Simon's trombone concerto Troubled Water featuring LPO Principal Trombone Austin Richardson and feel the raw energy of Samuel Barber's unbridled Symphony No. 1 before the exhilarating finale: Aaron Copland's beloved Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo – a joyous celebration of the American West.

Copland's Rodeo

Orpheum Theater

Invoke was the Young Professional String Quartet in Residence at the University of Texas at Austin from 2016-2018. Since being selected as Interlochen’s Emerging Artists Quartet in 2014, the group has been a featured artist and on faculty at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp. The group also participated in the Emerging String Quartet Program at Stanford, and was an Artist in Residence at Strathmore and the Fellowship String Quartet at Wintergreen Performing Arts. In 2018, Invoke was named a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition in New York, NY, received First Prize at the M-Prize International Chamber Arts competition in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and received First Prize in the Coltman Competition in Austin, Texas.

Invoke

Bethel United Methodist Church

What defines the All-American sound? From jazz and blues to spirituals and classical traditions, hear it evolve with conductor Anthony Parnther, a master of many genres. Pianist David Kaplan brings his "striking imagination and creativity" (The New York Times) to Copland’s jazz-inspired Piano Concerto.

American Soundscapes: Jazz, Blues & Beyond

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

The festival prize winners of the SIGNUM saxophone quartet prove that saxophones can also sound extremely festive when they invite the audience, together with musical friends, to the finale of the festival winter and send them off into the Christmas season in high spirits after a potpourri of Baroque, Romantic and even pop music.

SIGNUMs for the festival

Schloss und Gut Ulrichshusen

Local favorites Steve and Allison Martin join HSO for festive selections from The Nutcracker, Leroy Anderson’s classic Sleigh Ride, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and some of the Martins’ favorite songs, including “The Prayer,” “O Holy Night,” and “Ave Maria.”  Rounding out the family-friendly concert will be the audience favorite “Christmas Singalong,” full of well-known holiday carols! Steve and Allison are well known in West Michigan, having sung on opera stages and musical productions locally and around the country.  Allison received her Masters of Music from Michigan State University.  Steve holds a doctorate and master’s in music from Michigan State University.  He has taught at the college level and is now Director of Music and Fine Arts at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas.

Home for the Holidays 2025 Matinee: Steve & Allison Martin

West Ottawa High School Performing Arts Center

Mixed instrumental ensembles—from quartets to nonets—perform a diverse range of chamber works from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Color & Light

Alice Pratt Brown Hall

New Worlds: Jaime conducts Cheetham Fraillon and Dvořák

Deakin University Geelong Waterfront Campus

Arts Centre Melbourne

Joined by the phenomenal soprano Lucy Crowe, we journey across centuries and styles. From Handel and Haydn’s bright elegance to the vivid, kaleidoscopic textures of Messiaen, and from Berg’s exquisite The Nightingale to Gershwin’s jazz-tinged lyricism, come for an inspiring and beautiful range of music. Soar through centuries of music with one of the country’s most exciting orchestras and finest of singers.

Fantasia Orchestra with Lucy Crowe: Birdsong

Smith Square Hall

Celebrate the brilliance of women composers across three centuries. This program honors the bold voices that profoundly shaped musical history.

Women in Classical Music

First United Methodist Church Ventura

A thrilling fusion of symphonic mastery and jazz-infused energy! Grammy Award-winning pianist Michelle Cann takes center stage for both Florence Price’s Piano Concerto, a work of rich lyricism and bold orchestral colors, and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, a dazzling blend of elegance and swing.

  Rhythm of the Americas

Hult Center for the Performing Arts

Get ready to vote! The instrument families show off their unique skills and sounds, and you get to pick your favorite. Who will win? It's up to YOU!

The Great Debate

Cincinnati Music Hall

Celebrate the spirit of resilience, joy, and unity with American Hope, a concert showcasing seminal voices that have shaped American music. The evening opens with Scott Joplin’s Overture to “Treemonisha”, a vibrant and rarely heard orchestral gem from the King of Ragtime. George Gershwin’s An American in Paris follows, brimming with jazz-infused energy and the thrill of discovery. Florence Price’s Song of Hope offers a poignant and soaring expression of perseverance, while Margaret Bonds’ powerful work “The Ballad of the Brown King” brings the program to a stirring and triumphant close. Join us for a night of music that reflects the hope, strength, and artistry of America’s rich musical tapestry.

Composer

Florence Price

Events

Upcoming events

Jul 4, 2026

Pops, Patriots, and Fireworks · Caramoor

Jul 4, 2026

St Giles Orchestra July 2026 Concert · St Giles Orchestra

Jul 5, 2026

Harlem Chamber Players · Maverick Concerts

Jul 10, 2026

Concert for Unity · Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Jul 15, 2026

Ravel Piano Concerto · Grant Park Music Festival

Past events

Jun 14, 2026

Songs of Hope · Orchestre Métropolitain

Jun 7, 2026

Liam Kantzler, bass trombone · Northwestern Bienen School of Music

About

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