Composer

EPSG:4326

Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series | American Brass Quintet

The Juilliard School

Music Director finalist candidate Robert Kahn joins the Marin Symphony for a musical journey, starting with British composer Coleridge-Taylor’s vivacious Ballade. Our brilliant Principal Viola Jenny Douglass stars in Jennifer Higdon’s gorgeous and virtuosic concerto, and we end with Brahms’s great final symphony, a whole journey unto itself.

Masterworks 1: Kahn Conducts Brahms

College of Marin

Pianist Simon Trpčeski makes his OSM debut in Beethoven’s majestic Concerto no. 5, conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

Beethoven’s “Imperial” Concerto no. 5

Place des Arts

Experience a transcendent musical journey with renowned Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, GRAMMY Award-winning ensemble Time for Three, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Prokofiev & Time for Three

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Experience the resonant voices of six contemporary composers, magnified by the GRAMMY®-winning Pacific Chorale and organist Jung-A Lee. Our concert offers not just melodies, but profound narratives that reflect today's hopes, dreams, and challenges to light a path to a brighter tomorrow.

Songs of the Soul

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Billy the Kid

Adrian College

Enjoy a musical journey as former ISO Music Director Mario Venzago returns to conduct the music of Robert Schumann. The stellar musicians of the ISO invite you to explore the Rhinelands in Schumann’s 3rd Symphony.  Violinist Karen Gomyo, whom the Chicago Tribune describes as “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity,” performs Schumann’s ghostly Violin Concerto. Immerse yourself in the ethereal tones of Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral.

Venzago Returns!

Hilbert Circle Theatre

Romeo & Juliet Ablaze

George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Northern Virginia Community College

A spectacle of ancient pagan rituals, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring put modernism on the map with its brutality, barbaric rhythms, and dissonance. Experience the flamboyant and suspenseful ballet score that drove an audience to riot at its debut in 1913. Benjamin Beilman brings his "handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence" (The New York Times) to Jennifer Higdon's lyrical and dazzlingly virtuosic violin concerto.

The Rite of Spring

Hult Center for the Performing Arts

Dubbed “the high priests of brass” by Newsweek, the American Brass Quintet returns to the stunning acoustics of Harris Concert Hall.

A Recital by the American Brass Quintet

Aspen Meadows Resort

### Event Description: ROCO In Concert: Magnetic

**Date and Time:** Friday, June 7, 2024, at 11:00 AM

**Location:** Denney Theatre, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, 790 Austin St, Houston, TX 77002, USA

**Sponsored by:** 
- Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation
- Carol Franc Buck Foundation
- Texas Commission on the Arts
- BMI

**Event Overview:**
Join us for an extraordinary musical experience at "ROCO In Concert: Magnetic," a showcase of collaboration and innovation led by ROCO Artistic Partner and conductor Mei-Ann Chen. This concert is part of the 2024 League of American Orchestras Conference in Houston and features a compelling program that highlights ROCO’s commitment to expanding the classical canon and supporting women composers.

**Program:**
- **Reena Esmail:** Teen Murti (Past ROCO World Premiere Commission)
- **Gabriela Lena Frank:** Elegia Andina
- **Jennifer Higdon:** Dance Card: V. Machina Rockus (Past ROCO World Premiere Commission)
- **Leanna Primiani:** Neither man nor money validate my worth (Past ROCO World Premiere Commission)
- **Heather Schmidt:** Solitaire (Past ROCO World Premiere Commission)
- **Errollyn Wallen:** Photography: I. Vivace
- **Plus:** The premiere of a work chosen from ROCO’s EarShot Readings, a program of the American Composers Orchestra, in partnership with the League of American Orchestras, American Composers Forum, and New Music USA.

**Special Highlights:**
- The concert will feature several of ROCO’s previously commissioned world premieres and passion project works.
- A new work by one of the finalists of ROCO and American Composers Orchestra’s EarShot Call for Scores by early career female composers will be premiered.
- The EarShot finalists’ works will be workshopped and recorded on June 5-6, 2024, in Houston, with selected participants collaborating with mentors who are established orchestra composers and industry leaders.

**Concert Length:** 1 hour

**Additional Information:**
For more details and to view the event location on Google Maps, please visit the ROCO website. Don't miss this unique opportunity to witness the innovative spirit of ROCO and the exceptional talents of contemporary composers.

ROCO In Concert: Magnetic

Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

In partnership with the International Trombone Festival and Texas Christian University, The FWSO’s season finale goes out with a blast, spotlighting the brass instruments of the orchestra. Music Director Robert Spano will lead the ensemble in a brand-new double concerto for trombone and piano by Texas Christian University alumnus Kevin Day as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s river sings a song to trees. For the big finish: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

Season Finale: Jennifer Higdon, Kevin Day, and Mahler 5

Bass Performance Hall

Big and teaming with life, our season finale reaches for peaks. The fandango, a popular Spanish dance style, finds new life in Márquez’s lively violin concerto, which, from its inception, has been tied to one of the world’s most esteemed violinists, Anne Akiko Meyers. Aaron Copland’s final and monumental Symphony No. 3, which he began writing in a Mexican village in the 1930s, incorporates his famous Fanfare for the Common Man—and Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico reflects on the speed at which our lives move.

Anne Akiko Meyers Plays “Fandango”

Salt Palace Convention Center

Sea and stars swirl and coalesce, while works old and new converse with one another.


Ryan Bancroft & Joshua Bell

Davies Symphony Hall

The elegance, the genius of Mozart.  His exquisite “Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 27. Experience the artistry of Victoria Chung, as she performs Jennifer Higdon’s evocative Oboe Concerto. Also Stravinsky’s delightful homage to Bach, “Dumbarton Oaks.”

A Little Night Music

Randolph-Macon College

Perkinson Center for the Arts & Education

St. Christopher's School

The third concert of the Curtis Presents series builds upon the school’s longstanding tradition of innovation, inspiration, and artistic excellence as it celebrates eight of its distinguished composition alumni. As Curtis looks to its centenary in 2024, this retrospective program highlights iconic Curtis composers Jennifer Higdon (’88), Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41), David Serkin Ludwig (’01), Samuel Barber (’34), Ned Rorem (’44), Julius Eastman (’63), and recently appointed composition faculty member, Jonathan Bailey Holland (’96), in an evening of boundary-pushing chamber works and early-career classics that shaped the landscape of contemporary classical music.

Curtis Composers

Curtis Institute of Music Lenfest Hall

Join us for an enchanting evening of violin mastery as Eliana Silverman takes the stage on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at 6:00pm CDT. This captivating recital will be held in the intimate setting of the McClintock Choral and Recital Room, located within the prestigious Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts at 70 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 60208.

Eliana, a talented Bachelor of Music student under the guidance of Desirée Ruhstrat, will be accompanied by Nathan Canfield on piano. The program promises a journey through the evocative landscapes of violin music, featuring Stacy Garrop's "Repair the World" for solo violin, Jennifer Higdon's "Smoky Mountain Air" for solo violin, and Amy Beach's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Minor, Op. 34.

This event is a celebration of musical artistry, offering a free live stream for those who cannot attend in person. No tickets are required for this event, making it a wonderful opportunity for music lovers of all ages to experience the beauty of classical music performed by emerging talents.

Don't miss this opportunity to support live music and witness the future of classical performance.

Eliana Silverman, violin

Ryan Center for the Musical Arts

The Voices of American Female Composers: The Study of Selected Ensemble Works for Voice and Piano Trio by Lori Laitman and Jennifer Higdon (viva voce)

Yukyung Hwang, Piano – Doctoral Lecture Recital

Graduate Recital – Morgan Chan

University of Hawaii at Manoa

As we celebrate 275 years of this terrific city entrenched with a vibrant, rich history, we are delighted to perform an All-American program to include favorites new and old. Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral has become a staple in the modern-day orchestral repertoire known for its spiritual expression and symbolism for life’s journey. Barber’s Symphony in One Movement is an expressive and lyrical, yet synthetic treatment of the traditional four-movement scheme compressed into one movement. By contrast, John Alden Carpenter’s Krazy Kat was one of the earliest works to incorporate jazz and Latin/Spanish-flavored “popular” music into the symphonic genre that brings verve and panache to the popular Concertino for piano and orchestra. Also influenced by jazz idioms, our finale includes a timeless, iconic, American masterpiece – Rhapsody in Blue featuring local sensation, Thomas Pandolfi. Gershwin’s epic concerto presents forthright thematic material from an oscillating bluesy tune, a brazen march-like melody, and finally, a grandly romantic, jubilant theme enjoyed by all.

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue @ 100 ​and Alexandria VA's 275 Birthday!

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Our subscribers voted this summer, and the results are in! I wanted a popular symphonic work to be featured in the second half of these concerts, and Dvořák’s New World Symphony emerged as the winner. The first half of the concert opens with a fun work titled Loco by Jennifer Higdon, followed by the return of another favorite artist of mine, Steven Isserlis who has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as one of the world’s foremost cellists. He will perform Kabalevsky’s second cello concerto, a premiere for the MSO.

Favorites of Mine & Your Choice!

Overture Center for the Arts

Carl St.Clair, artistic leader and principal conductor of the USC Thornton orchestras, leads the USC Thornton Symphony in Jennifer Higdon's Blue Cathedral and Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40.

USC Thornton Symphony

University of Southern California

LLEF, a flute and cello duo by the Welsh-born composer Hilary Tann, is a drone-anchored meditation with breathy pentatonic lines that mingle in the shadows of Welsh hymns. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor weaves endlessly inventive, folk-inflected melodies that Shimmer in a nest of Brahmsian form and Dvořák-esque harmony for his robust quintet for clarinet and strings. Light keyboard filigree provides the titular sparkle for Jennifer Higdon’s glimmering, neo-tonal confection Summer Shimmers for winds and piano. A new work for oboe, viola, and piano by the winner of the Pappalardo Composition Award rounds out the program.

Radius Ensemble | Shimmer

Longy School of Music of Bard College

The culmination of decades-long artistry and mentorship, The Maestro and His Maestro showcases the synergy between Maestros Lawrence Golan and Robert Spano as they spearhead an inspiring performance that charts the generations. Conductors from the DPO’s 4th Annual International Conducting Workshop will trade off movements within a program which spans musical eras and genres, competing for a chance to return and conduct the orchestra at a future DPO concert in 2024-25.

The Maestro and His Maestro

Central Presbyterian Church Denver

Immerse yourself in a transformative musical journey with the Monterey Symphony's captivating concert, "Palo Corona," set to enchant audiences on February 17, 2024, at 7:30 PM, and February 18, 2024, at 3:00 PM. This remarkable event will unfold at the prestigious Sunset Center, located at San Carlos Ave & 9th Ave, Carmel, offering a splendid backdrop for an evening of classical music that explores themes of transformation, transcendence, salvation, and the triumph over personal setbacks.

Under the baton of Music Director and Conductor Jayce Ogren, the concert will feature a world premiere by Monterey Symphony Composer in Residence John Wineglass, showcasing the extraordinary talents of trailblazing pianist Lara Downes. The program promises an emotional and spiritual voyage through masterpieces by Weber, Higdon, and Beethoven, each piece delving into the mystical connections between the natural and supernatural worlds.

The evening will commence with Weber's "Overture to Der Freischütz," a piece that celebrates the redeeming power of love, followed by the world premiere of John Wineglass's "The Great Migration: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra," a poignant reflection on life's journeys. After an intermission, the audience will be treated to Jennifer Higdon's "blue cathedral," an evocative exploration of life and the afterlife, culminating in Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92," hailed as the apotheosis of dance by Richard Wagner.

This concert is not only a showcase of musical brilliance but also a testament to the enduring power of music to inspire and transform. With very limited seats remaining for the Sunday performance, this event promises to be a highlight of the Monterey Symphony's 2023-2024 season, offering an unforgettable experience for all who attend.

Palo Corona

Sunset Center

Fantastic Revelry

East Tennessee State University

Reserve your seats today and enjoy unbeatable savings by subscribing to New World Symphony’s Sounds of the Times series. Starting at just $8 a concert, our 2023-24 series blends music and mixology. Enjoy specialty cocktails paired with works by Gyorgi Lygeti, Nicole Lizée and Jennifer Higdon.

Bits and Scraps: New Music for Percussion

New World Center

**Event Description: ROCO Connections: Simple Gifts**

Join us for an enchanting evening of music and dance at the "ROCO Connections: Simple Gifts" concert, taking place on Saturday, February 10, 2024, at 5:00 PM at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX. This event is now at capacity, but you can still be part of the experience by joining our free livestream or contacting us to join the waiting list at email protected or 713-665-2700.

Sponsored by the Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation and supported by the Betty Jane Seydler Foundation, this concert is a celebration of collaboration and artistic expression. The program, led by conductor Delyana Lazarova, features Aaron Copland’s iconic tone poem "Appalachian Spring" in its original 13-piece version, which has inspired the ROCO-commissioned world premiere of James Stephenson’s "Persephone." This premiere will include a solo dance performance with original choreography by Marlana Doyle, founder of the Houston Contemporary Dance Company. Additionally, Jennifer Higdon’s quintet "Celestial Hymns" will round out the evening's program.

**Musicians:**
- Scott St. John, violin
- Aloysia Friedmann, violin
- Eva Burmeister, violin
- Sean Riley, violin
- Matthew Dane, viola
- Lorento Golofeev, viola
- Mina Smith, cello
- Annamarie Reader, cello
- Timothy Pitts, bass
- Matthew Roitstein, flute
- Nathan Williams, clarinet
- Kristin Wolfe Jensen, bassoon
- Audrey Andrist, piano

**Dancer:**
- Madison Araiza

**Location:**
Rothko Chapel
Yupon Street, Houston, TX, USA

**Program:**
- Aaron Copland: "Appalachian Spring" (Suite for 13 instruments)
- Jennifer Higdon: "Celestial Hymns" (For clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano)
- James Stephenson: "Persephone" (ROCO World Premiere Commission with Houston Contemporary Dance Company)

Don't miss this unique opportunity to experience a blend of music and dance in a serene and inspiring setting.

ROCO Connections: Simple Gifts

Rothko Chapel

Quintets and Sextets

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

Kenari Saxophone Quartet

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute

MasterWorks III Concert – Sarah Chang

Clark State Performing Arts Center

Join us for a monumental event, "A Tallahassee Bicentennial Celebration: Portraits of America," presented by the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. This special concert is set to take place on January 20th from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm and January 21st from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the prestigious Ruby Diamond venue, located at 222 S Copeland St, Tallahassee, FL 32304.

Under the baton of Music Director Darko Butorac, the TSO will embark on a musical journey through America's past and present. The evening will open with a newly commissioned work by Jennifer Higdon that beautifully captures the essence of the Western Carolina mountains. The program will also feature Aaron Copland's iconic "Lincoln Portrait," which combines narration and visuals to tell the story of American history, and William Grant Still's groundbreaking "Afro-American Symphony," the first symphony by an African-American composer to be performed by a leading American orchestra. Additionally, the concert will include a brand new photo-choreography work set to music from Duke Ellington’s "Black, Brown and Beige," celebrating Tallahassee’s bicentennial with a vibrant visual and musical tribute to the city's past and present.

This event is not only a celebration of Tallahassee's 200th anniversary but also an invitation for the community to contribute by sharing their photos of Tallahassee, adding a personal touch to the celebration.

For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the TSO at 850-224-0461 or visit their website. Don't miss this unique opportunity to celebrate Tallahassee's rich history and vibrant future through the power of music and visual art.

A Tallahassee Bicentennial Celebration: Portraits of America

Florida State University

The first mandolin soloist to be nominated for a classical Grammy®, Israeli prodigy Avi Avital is a Vancouver fan favourite. He returns with a rare Canadian performance of Pulitzer prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s new Mandolin Concerto, written expressly for Avital. Plus, the VSO performs Beethoven’s dramatic Coriolan Overture, and Dvořák’s rhapsodic Symphony No. 7, under the baton of internationally-acclaimed dynamo Tianyi Lu.

Dvořák 7 & Avi Avital

Centennial Theatre

Sullivan Heights Secondary School

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

Though our visibility has evolved over time, the creative contributions of the Queer community have been ever-present. Throughout history we have told our stories, sometimes implicitly coded into larger tales or even offered with our queerness removed altogether. 

Salon Series

Garrett Jacobs Mansion

Ken Kagawa is a winner of Manhattan School of Music’s 2022 – 2023 Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition 

MSM Symphony Orchestra and MSM Jazz Orchestra

Manhattan School of Music

Departmental Recitals showcase performance departments through its students. Featuring various students and repertoire, and curated by the faculty, performances in this recital highlight SFCM programs and the wide range of study. 

Percussion Ensemble Recital

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

From the Heart

Warren Atherton Auditorium

An evening of colorful, storytelling music that evokes an assortment of sounds, fragrances and sensations, from new to familiar.

Scheherazade and More

Frauenthal Center

Your Season begins with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain Suite from her opera. This is the first Ohio performance

Season Debut Concert

Ohio Wesleyan University

Rachmaninoff’s favorite ensemble was The Philadelphia Orchestra; “the greatest orchestra in the world,” he called it. In this concert, the orchestra performs two of his most important pieces, including his last major work: Symphonic Dances. It was dedicated to The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the ensemble played its premiere in January 1941, just days before it performed the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. His Second Symphony, a much earlier creation, was an enduring favorite that Rachmaninoff conducted with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1909 and which received its US premiere here on this stage. The program opens with the brisk, propulsive excitement of Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico.

The Philadelphia Orchestra 2023

Carnegie Hall

CUSO opens the 2023-24 season with an incandescent evening of blockbuster works. Percussionist extraordinaire She-e Wu will amaze you in Jennifer Higdon’s imaginative Percussion Concerto. The spotlight will also shine on the CUSO’s brass in the beloved tone poem Finlandia, by Jean Sibelius. The Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius is an awe-inspiring masterpiece and one of the composer’s greatest works. Join CUSO for musical grandeur at its finest!

Champaign-urbana Symphony Orchestra: Orchestral Splendor

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

CUSO opens the 2023-24 season with an incandescent evening of blockbuster works. Percussionist extraordinaire She-e Wu will amaze you in Jennifer Higdon’s imaginative Percussion Concerto. The spotlight will also shine on the CUSO’s brass in the beloved tone poem Finlandia by Jean Sibelius. The Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius is an awe-inspiring masterpiece and one of the composer’s greatest works. Join CUSO for musical grandeur at its finest!

Orchestral Splendor

Conductor Stéphane Denève returns to Walk Festival Hall with a suite of scenes from Prokofiev’s legendary balletic tribute to Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. But first, pianist Marc-André Hamelin joins the Festival Orchestra in Ravel’s miraculous concerto for a wounded WWI veteran, and Jennifer Hidgon’s “symbolic doorway into and out of this world” completes the program.

Festival Orchestra: Ravel & Prokofiev

Walk Festival Hall

Maestro Măcelaru kicks off the 61st season with an evening of West Coast premieres by composers Sarah Kirkland Snider, Jennifer Higdon, Sebastian Currier, and Bora Yoon.

Forward

Civic Auditorium Santa Cruz

Winner of the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition, Bruce Liu makes his Bravo! Vail debut performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, in a program including Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances—a work premiered by the Orchestra in 1941. 

The Philadelphia Orchestra's distinctive sound returns to Bravo! Vail for its annual residency in July. The Fabulous Philadelphians are admired for a legacy of innovation and known for their keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences.

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater

Join us for the opening admission-free chamber concert featuring Frost School at Festival Napa Valley Blackburn Music Academy faculty.
This concert is dedicated to the memory of Geoff Nuttall

Festival Live! Concert Series

The Culinary Institute of America at Copia

Globally renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins BBC NOW in this season closing concert for one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti.

Season Closing Concert

St David’s Dewi Sant

Wales Millennium Centre

Brangwyn Hall

The Stanford Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paul Phillips, presents its Spring 2023 concert program from the Main Stage of Bing Concert Hall.

Stanford Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert

Stanford University

Mother’s Day Season Finale: Ode to Joy

Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Cathedrals of Light

MassBay  Community College

Knox Chamber Music

Westminster Presbyterian Church

The celebrated Dolce Suono Trio will perform a dazzling program featuring beloved works by Maurice Ravel and Joaquín Turina, in their own arrangements, commissioned works by Pulitzer Prize and 3-time Grammy Award winner Jennifer Higdon and the trio’s own pianist Charles Abramovic, Leonard Bernstein’s beloved Overture to “Candide,” as you’ve never heard it before, and Brazilian choros, showcasing the group’s specialty in Latin music. Dolce Suono Trio is comprised of internationally acclaimed artists flutist Mimi Stillman, founding Artistic Director of Dolce Suono Ensemble, cellist Gabriel Cabezas, and pianist Charles Abramovic.

Dolce Suono Trio

Tucson Convention Center

The LO “Music Without Borders” concerts are free with your registration.  First come first serve subject to venue capacity 

Free Concert: With American Flair

Jeffersontown Veterans Memorial Park

California Community Center

Logan Street Market

Flutist Brian Dunbar performs the West coast premiere of MOVEMENTS for Flute and Orchestra, a new work by trailblazing composer Carlos Simon. In a score that takes inspiration from themes of redemption and self-will, Simon inspires the uplifting sense of possibility also present in an iconic spiritual and the exuberance of Beethoven that complete this not-to-be-missed program.

Grace & Action

Gresham High School

Portland First United Methodist Church

The talented musicians performing in Ensemble Connect form “one of the strongest ensembles in the city” (New York Classical Review). Over the course of this two-year fellowship program, extraordinary young professionals perform a series of concerts that smartly bridges the history and future of classical music, from timeless Baroque music to new works. This program includes a Philadelphia premiere by Michi Wiancko, commissioned by Carnegie Hall; brilliant quintets by Mozart and R. Schumann; and Dark Wood by Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon—a title that refers to the bassoon, used virtuosically throughout the piece.

Ensemble Connect

American Philosophical Society

University Of Illinois Symphony Orchestra And Oratorio Society

This concert explores nostalgia and grief over lost loved ones in Jennifer Higdon’s beautiful elegy to her late brother, and the melancholy memory of being in love, always present in the music of Johannes Brahms. We also welcome back superstar violinist Rachel Lee Priday for Barber’s romantic Violin Concerto

Love and Loss

Washburn University

Boston Conservatory at Berklee woodwind faculty members Sarah Brady (flute), Robert Sheena (English horn), Jan Halloran (clarinet), Eli Epstein (horn), and Margaret Phillips (bassoon) explore the seasons through the music of Bach, Barber, D'Rivera, and Higdon in this concert of seasonal woodwind quintets that takes audience members on a climatic journey.

Artistry in Action: Faculty Woodwind Quintet—The Seasons

Boston Conservatory at Berklee

The concert opens with a new piece by award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon commissioned by a consortium of orchestras. A young Venezuelan cellist and Sphinx competition artist, Adalus Low-Manzini, will perform a cello concerto by Argentinian composer Esteban Benzecry.  Rounding out the program is Berlioz’s masterpiece, Symphonie Fantastique.

Symphonie Fantastique

Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts

Bluegrass, folk and hymns are the sounds of the vast American landscape.  Hear Barber’s bracing Second Essay for Orchestra followed by Higdon’s Smoky Mountains inspired Concerto 4-3. The orchestra continues through the High Plains in Thomson’s film score for The Plow That Broke the Plains and finishes the American tour with the “Simple Gifts” of Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

Appalachian Spring

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts

Marin favorite Joyce Yang returns for Tchaikovsky’s beloved 1st Piano Concerto, along with colorful masterpieces by Jennifer Higdon and Igor Stravinsky.

Masterworks 2 Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto

Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium

The outstanding American Youth Symphony returns with a program titled INTERSECTIONS that primarily focuses upon living composers—from Unsuk Chin to Jimmy Lopez—highlighted by Jennifer Higdon’s Prize-winning Violin Concerto, featuring Grammy-nominated Tessa Lark. Carlos Izcaray closes with his own work, which draws on his personal and family history of immigration while showcasing various instruments in “a love letter to the orchestra.” 

American Youth Symphony - Sounds About Town

Walt Disney Concert Hall

LA Phil and AYS present Sounds About Town at the grand Walt Disney Concert Hall. Titled  Intersections, the program features a collection of sound experiences that highlights the breadth and vibrancy across the world of orchestral composition from composers such as Jean Sibelius, Unsuk Chin, Jimmy Lopez, Brian Raphael Nabors, and AYS’ Music Director Carlos Izcaray to name a few. AYS welcomes captivating Grammy-nominated violinist, Tessa Lark, to perform the Pulitzer Prize-winning violin concerto by Jennifer Higdon.

Sounds About Town

Stroll through nature with Beethoven’s expressive sounds of birds fluttering, storms thundering, and EMMY Award-winning composer Jeff Beal’s visual and musical depiction of rebirth after the devastation of the Thomas Fire.

Beethoven in Bloom

Granada Theatre

The Music Academy of the West Marilyn Horne Song Competition Recital is generously supported by Linda Seltzer Yawitz. 
Wise Moon was commissioned by Music Academy of the West with the generous support of Stephen Schaible and Daron Builta.

Marilyn Horne Song Competition Winners Recital

Emanuel Ax solos in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto — elegant, luscious, and spirited. Stéphane Denève brings his celebrated touch to works by fellow Frenchmen — Roussel’s muscular symphony and Ravel’s homage-with-a-twist to “The Waltz King,” Johann Strauss II — and to Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral, in memory of her brother. She writes: “This is a story that commemorates living and passing through places of knowledge and of sharing and of that song called life.

Emanuel Ax Performs Beethoven

In 1897, the disastrous première of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony threw his promising career as a composer into disarray. For three agonizing years, he was unable to create anything significant. He found relief with the help of Dr. Nikolai Dahl, a psychoanalyst. “The material for a new concerto accumulated, and new musical ideas began to stir within me,” he wrote. “By autumn I had completed two movements (the second and third)….These I played that same season at a charity concert, with gratifying success….By the spring of 1901, I had finished the first movement. Out of gratitude to Dr. Dahl, I dedicated the concerto to him.”
The reasons for its enormous popularity are clear. It displays its emotions directly, particularly warmth and melancholy. The themes are attractive and memorable, and Rachmaninoff clothed them in lush orchestral colors. The solo part is brilliant, mirroring the power and expressiveness of the composer’s magnificent performing skills. He performed it no fewer than 143 times, and recorded it twice.

Forte - Season Finale

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto

Pulitzer Prize and three-time GRAMMY winning living American composer Jennifer Higdon’s music is described as,“…traditionally rooted, yet imbued with integrity and freshness.”  Her evocative orchestral work blue cathedral was composed soon after the passing of her brother, AndrewBlue.  Higdon notes, “As I was writing this piece, I found myself imagining a journey through a glass cathedral in the sky….This piece represents the expression of the individual and the group...our inner travels and the places our souls carry us, the lessons we learn, and the growth we experience.”  French pianist extraordinaire Jean-Yves Thibaudet will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in GMajor.  Chicago Classical noted, “Few keyboard artists embody Ravel’s blend of supple elegance and unbridled bravura so naturally and effortlessly.” Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony has an overwhelmingly uplifting, enthusiastic spirit that is steeped in wartime patriotism. Prokofiev indicated this work is, “…very important not only for the musical material that went into it, but also because I was returning to the symphonic form after a break of 16 years.  The Fifth Symphony is the culmination of an entire period in my work. I conceived of it as a symphony on the greatness of the human soul.

Jennifer Higdon

Composer

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 13, 2025

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano · Palm Beach Symphony

Jan 18, 2025

Spano Conducts Beethoven's Eroica · Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School

Jan 25, 2025

MasterWorks IV: All Things Majestic · Canton Symphony Orchestra

6 - 8 Feb, 2025

Selaocoe & Tchaikovsky · Seattle Symphony

Feb 7, 2025

Tchaikovsky Untuxed · Seattle Symphony

Past events

Nov 17, 2024

Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series | American Brass Quintet · The Juilliard School

9 - 10 Nov, 2024

Masterworks 1: Kahn Conducts Brahms · Marin Symphony

About

Jennifer Higdon hasn't added a bio