Composer

The Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet is one of the most multifaceted groups in any genre, comprised of four uniquely accomplished musicians bringing a new energy to the concert stage. Formed in 1980 and consistently playing to sold-out houses worldwide, the quartet performs inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks that provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. The quartet’s diverse discography includes the 2005 Grammy-winning Guitar Heroes, the 2004 Grammy-nominated LAGQ-Latin, and their most recent album from 2022, Opalescent. In addition to solo programs, the LAGQ has toured collaborative works with choirs, orchestras, vocalists, and dancers. Highlights include their program Don Quixote, narrated by actor Philip Proctor (featured during the 2009-10 season of the Segovia Classical Guitar Series), and Shingo Fujii’s work SHIKI: Seasons of Japan, featuring a guitar orchestra. In 2021, the quartet received the Artistic Achievement Award from the Guitar Foundation of America.

EPSG:4326

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall

As Hitler’s armies surrounded the city of Leningrad, Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Seventh Symphony – a shout of courage, defiance and victory, written for massed battalions of musicians. Brace yourself for wartime drama on a heroic scale as Bassem Akiki conducts the mighty RSNO in this sonic blockbuster: the climax of a concert that begins with Copland’s showstopping fanfare and stars a real RSNO favourite, violinist Philippe Quint, in a violin concerto with a dazzling difference.

RSNO Season 26-27: Shostakovich Seven

Usher Hall

SPYO Fall Concert '26

Converse University

Franz Schubert - Symphony in B minor D. 759 "Unfinished"; Aaron Copland - Lincoln Portrait with Hon. Bruce Harrell, speaker; Edward Elgar - Variations on an Original Theme 'Enigma'

Enigma

Town Hall

Ode To Joy

Clay Center

Join us for our 40 and Fabulous! season debut concert as we celebrate 40 wonderful years as Ottumwa’s own symphony orchestra.

Masterworks #1: Salute to America

Bridge View Center

Still’s “Autochthonous” Symphony No. 4, a radiantly lyrical tribute to those who have triumphed over a difficult past, honors the American people’s optimism and dreams of hope. Copland’s Lincoln Portrait highlights the 16th president’s character and thoughts in music threaded with selections from his celebrated writings. A new work by Portland musician, writer, and storyteller Gabriel Kahane rounds out this program of modern Americana.

Kahane, Still & Copland

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

South Salem High School

Celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary with a vibrant celebration of American composers, featuring a dazzling new trumpet concerto, and the iconic, hopeful spirit of Copland’s Symphony No. 3.

Made in America: Celebrate 250!

Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts

Ulster Orchestra: Beethoven 200 Dance Moves comes to Ulster Hall on 23 October 2026 for a thrilling celebration of rhythm, movement and musical genius.

Ulster Orchestra: Dance Moves

Ulster Hall

Promoter and events producer Raymond Gubbay has spent his career bringing classical music to more people in the UK than perhaps anyone else. He has had a long-standing working relationship with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and so it is fitting that they perform on the 60th anniversary of the first ever concert that Raymond promoted, as well as marking his 80th birthday year.

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge

Wigmore Hall

A performance by violin faculty member Wendy Sharp and pianist Sophiko Simsive.

Wendy Sharp, violin

Yale University

Experience a compelling evening of music led by Richard Robbins and featuring the Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus. This program brings together Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands, a moving and thought-provoking work for choir and strings; Britten’s vibrant Sinfonietta, Op. 1, brimming with youthful energy and color; and his luminous choral miniature “Concord” from Gloriana. The concert concludes with Copland’s “The Promise of Living” from The Tender Land, a heartfelt and uplifting tribute to shared purpose and hope. Be there for an unforgettable concert that weaves together voices and instruments in a powerful celebration of unity and expression. 

Copland, Britten & Shaw

Randolph-Macon College

St. Christopher's School

European iconoclasts meet American masters. Composer Franz Berwald—an erstwhile orthopedic surgeon—stood apart from the early Romantic mainstream, cultivating a distinctly eccentric voice with his overture to Estrella di Soria. Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, an early work from the so-called "bad boy of Russian music," conjures a dreamlike sound world, interweaving introspective lyricism with flashes of steely virtuosity. Completing the program are two pillars of 1940s Americana: the orchestral suite from Aaron Copland's iconic ballet Appalachian Spring and the probing musical argument of Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra.

Appalachian Spring + Alexi Kenney

Sunset Center Theater

Dance across America with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra; drive in an old Model T Ford down historical, winding Colorado roads with James David; read a New York newsreel with William Schuman; and experience the jazzy All-American symphonies of Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber! Join us for a night of musical storytelling and interpreting America’s musical identity.

ON the move: american snapshots

University of Northern Colorado

The Kammerballett Hamburger debuts in Venice. Founded in 2022 by Edvin Revazov, with the valuable support of Isabelle Rohlfs and John Neumeier, to react to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and welcome displaced Ukrainian dancers with the language of art, the ensemble aims to connect its repertoire of classical and contemporary dance to socially relevant themes. Eight dancers will be performing at the Malibran Theatre, – accompanied on piano by Michal Bialk – in two choreographies by John Neumeier, a master at combining classical tradition and modern forms in his creations and expressing himself with a highly personal language. The first is Hamlet Connotations, to the music of Aaron Copland, testimony to Neumeier’s interest in the famous Shakespearean tragedy which was a source of inspiration to him for various dance performances over the years: starting with Hamlet Connotations (1976) up to the most recent Hamlet 21 in 2021. The second is Petruška Variations, a ballet, also from 1976, modelled on Igor Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petrouchka.

Hamburger Kammerballett

Teatro Malibran

From ragtime to music for ballet and film, this program showcases American music in a wide range of styles from four of its greatest composers: William Bolcom, an American icon as prolific as Mozart; Amy Beach, who broke the gender barrier with works of genius; Bernard Herrmann, a New York City wunderkind who took Hollywood by storm; and Aaron Copland, whose music personified the American spirit.

Copland's Appalachian Spring

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Hit the open road with the Symphony with a coast-to-coast soundtrack of highways and hometowns, celebrating America’s 250th along the way. From Copland’s wide-open spaces of Appalachian Spring to Route 66 favorites.

American Crossroads: The Sound of America

Morris Performing Arts Center

Our opening program celebrates America’s 250th with three distinct works by a trio of America’s great composers. William Grant Still’s blues-infused Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American,” was the first work by a Black composer to be performed by a major U.S. orchestra and remains one of the most popular American symphonies of all time. Acclaimed pianist Sara Davis Buechner will bring George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to life in a high-octane celebration of American spirit – a piece that famously blends the gritty soul of the Jazz Age with the sophisticated structure of European classical music. Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3, with its iconic focal point—the majestic “Fanfare for the Common Man”—is known as the “greatest American symphony,” celebrating the citizens, laborers, and soldiers of the World War II era.

Vista Philharmonic Orchestra – All American

Groton Hill Music Center

Experience the spirit of discovery and the vast beauty of America. Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite set the stage for Dvořák’s deeply expressive Cello Concerto—written in America and inspired by its promise.

Horizons

Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts

American music, restless and searching. Peter Oundjian is in his element in a program that sweeps from the virtuosity of Joan Tower’s Concerto for Orchestra to the lyricism of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, captured by rising star Paul Huang. From the open skies of Copland’s Appalachian Spring to the full-throttle surge of John Adams’ Frenzy, this program evokes the spirit of American energy in motion. | Join us for a pre-concert talk 1 hour before most performances.

Bernstein & Appalachian Spring

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

From the open landscapes of Copland’s Appalachian Spring to the spiritual-inspired lyricism of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto, from the symphonic warmth of William Grant Still to the electrifying rhythms of Bernstein’s West Side Story, this concert is a vibrant journey through American music at its most exciting. Rising star Jeneba Kanneh-Mason joins conductor Kellen Gray for a concert packed with orchestral colour and irresistible rhythm.

RSNO Season 26-27: West Side Story

What defines the American sound? Cellist Zuill Bailey leads the premiere of Visions of Humanity, a bold suite of variations by five living composers reflecting on shared experience from strikingly different perspectives. Framing the work is a portrait of America, from Copland’s Shaker simplicity and William Grant Still’s lyric warmth to the cinematic sweeping landscapes of Billy the Kid.

Americana

Martin Woldson Theater

Share in the timeless elegance and vigor of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, “Americana” personified in Copland’s Old American Songs, and the celebrated ballet, Appalachian Spring, a cornerstone of American classical music and dance. A captivating program that bridges classical tradition and American spirit.

Beethoven & Copland

Rancho Campana Performing Arts Center

Bank Of America Performing Arts 

Opening Night: America 250

Robinson Center

Winner of the Young Artist Category in the 2026 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Awards , star trumpeter Matilda Lloyd joins Ensemble 360 for a sparkling celebration of American music, alongside some dazzling trumpet classics. Described by BBC Music Magazine as a “trumpeter extraordinaire,” and celebrated for her impeccable sound, crystalline phrasing, and exquisite control, Matilda Lloyd holds audiences spellbound through virtuosity and expressive power.

Americana: Gershwin and Bernstein for Trumpet

Crucible Theatre

Akiko Fujimoto is Music Director of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA) and Music Director of the Mid-Texas Symphony. Known for evoking dynamic performances, she has earned praise for her “powerhouse performance” from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rites of Renewal: The Firebird

Walton Arts Center

Hailed as a “dynamic conductor” by the Baltimore Sun, Kwamé Ryan makes his LA Phil debut pairing the thrills of John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine with the mighty power and heroism of Copland’s brass-filled Symphony No. 3. This all-American program arrives right on time, following Ryan’s first Grammy win for his recording of Jake Heggie’s opera Intelligence, inspired by two female spies from the American Civil War.

Kwamé Ryan Leads Adams & Copland

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Atlanta, GA American Soundscapes

Emory University

A beloved San Francisco icon, Michael Tilson Thomas redefined the San Francisco Symphony during his extraordinary 25-year tenure as Music Director. In a one-of-a-kind event, MTT’s longtime friends and artistic collaborators—join the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus in a concert celebrating his life and legacy. The program features music by composers closely associated with MTT, including Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Charles Ives, and Aaron Copland, alongside world premieres by Mason Bates and MTT himself.

A Concert for MTT

Davies Symphony Hall

Celebrating America 250, this evening includes Copland's Lincoln Portrait, which is based on the always timely words of Abraham Lincoln and features Mark Mobley as narrator.

UGA Symphony Orchestra: Aaron Copland "Lincoln Portrait"

University of Georgia Performing Arts Center

Symphony I:  Family Concert featuring all American Composers

Port Angeles High School

Led by Music Director Alex Prior, the brass and percussion of Eugene Symphony take center stage in a concert filled with soaring melodies, dramatic marches, and thrilling fanfares. From the iconic opening of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man to music both moving and majestic, Fanfares & Serenades offers a powerful orchestral experience in an intimate setting.

Eugene Symphony: Fanfares & Serenades

Florence Events Center

Led by Music Director Alex Prior, the Soreng Chamber Series opens with a program of brilliance, power, and ceremonial grandeur. Centered on Fanfare for the Common Man and Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, the concert celebrates the bold, resonant sound of brass in an intimate yet powerful start to the season.

Fanfares for the Common Man and the Uncommon Woman

Hult Center for the Performing Arts

We’re kicking off our Masterworks series with a celebration of America 250. The dramatic and stirring Fanfare for the Common Man by American composer Aaron Copland opens the program in recognition of the contributions of the average, everyday people. Next, GRAMMY Award winning pianist Michelle Cann delights us with George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F. Finally, we’re traveling to the new world with a piece that was finished here in Iowa, Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

Masterworks I – New World Symphony

Paramount Theatre Iowa

The University of Iowa School of Music - Voxman Building

The American Voice

Julie Rogers Theatre

Opening Weekend: Beethoven’s Second Symphony with Gábor Takács-Nagy

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

America’s ardor for pushing boundaries led to the settling of America's west and exploring the cosmos. The Symphony celebrates this spirit of discovery with Aaron Copland's “Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo” and Gustav Holst's epic, “The Planets”.

Exploration

Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center

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

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

LSO kicks off its centennial season with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Tyler White’s A Fivescore Festival: 100 Measures for 100 Years. To amplify the celebration, LSO is joined for both fanfares by The Pride of All Nebraska: The Cornhusker Marching Band. LSO then pays homage to the program of its very first concert in March of 1927 with Mozart’s Overture to Le nozze di Figaro and Liszt’s Les Préludes. The celebration culminates with 7-time GRAMMY Award-winning piano legend Emanuel Ax who joins the orchestra to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22.

Emanuel AX

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

For 25 years, Yuja Wang has dazzled the music world with her stupendous virtuosity, yet routine has never crept in. She is always searching for something new, eager to discover the unfamiliar and reinvent herself. The Festival theme “American Dreams” immediately resonated with her. That’s why she has added Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto to her repertoire: a work that picks up threads from Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, yet also shows the influence of Bartók and jazz. The result was so striking that Barber received the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1963. The real fun starts in the second half, when Yuja Wang performs the Jazz Suite by the Ukrainian composer Alexander Tsfasman — taking on the musical direction herself. She has a true feeling for jazz and, not coincidentally, received the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her album The American Project. Her longtime friend Teddy Abrams was on the podium for that recording. In Lucerne, he will conduct the first half of the concert, beginning with Aaron Copland’s refreshing Appalachian Spring, with its echoes of folk songs, hymns, square dances, and fiddle music. America at its best!

Mahler Chamber Orchestra | Yuja Wang | Teddy Abrams

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

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

This Labor Day weekend, your Nashville Symphony transforms Walk of Fame Park into a multimedia celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

Leading the evening alongside Music Director Leonard Slatkin is acclaimed actor, humanitarian, and fellow Lincoln Medal recipient Gary Sinise, who narrates American Mosaic: a bold new composition honoring the people, places, and spirit of the United States. Created by composer Peter Boyer and renowned photographer Joe Sohm, and co-commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, the work weaves sweeping orchestral music, Sinise's live narration, and stunning 4K video from all 50 states into an unforgettable journey through America’s diverse sonic and scenic identity.

Around this centerpiece, the orchestra performs some of our nation’s most beloved pieces, including Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and Charles Ives' Variations on America.

American Mosaic: A Free Community Concert

Walk of Fame Park

Turning brass into gold: five young trumpeters from Great Britain, Sweden, and Ukraine know the formula that countless alchemists have sought in vain. Founded four years ago at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Fiveby5 produces a radiant, golden brass sound with a brilliant sheen and has already won numerous prizes. Most recently, the quintet won the prestigious Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition in 2025. This success has, among other things, led to their appearance at “In the Streets: City Stage”: the varied program ranges from Bach, Rameau, and Mozart to the rousing Hoe-Down from Aaron Copland’s cowboy ballet Rodeo.

“Brass Spectacular in Memory of Philip Jones”

KKL Lucerne

Kapellplatz

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

Sounds of America

Taft High School

Copland Appalachian Spring, Beethoven Symphony No. 7, and Rountree For Martha (Variations on a Theme of Leonard Bernstein) Featuring Martha Graham Dance Company

Tanglewood Music Center

The Edinburgh Festival Chorus joins with our Rising Stars for a programme of American music from the 20th and 21st centuries.

This Shining Night

It is always a good day when Jon Deak shows up on your doorstep. This concert marks his triumphant return (indeed, his third visit!) to Newburyport and the first appearance at NCMF of his friend and collaborator, legendary Metropolitan opera soprano Lucy Shelton. The concert begins with Lucy performing Cathy Berberian’s tour-de-force for solo soprano with a score written not in musical notation but as a cartoon (the score will be projected so the audience can follow along). Also featured on the program is Haydn’s B Minor quartet. Papa Haydn was famous for his sunny disposition but this is an unusually dark and enigmatic work. As long as we are flipping traditional roles, Shostakovich, known a bit as the king of despair, has, with his first quartet in C Major, a work that is warm and even sunny at times.

Return of Jon Deak

Immaculate Conception Church, Newburyport

The husband-and-wife duo of Lucas Meachem (the Grammy Award–winning baritone who’s been hailed as a "rock star of opera" by Opera Pulse) and Irina Meachem (praised as “a gifted collaborative pianist” by Voce di Meche) present a program of American art songs that “draws from the voices of poets and composers who illuminate the enduring tension between struggle and hope,” Irina wrote in a program note. “These songs,” she continued, “are reminders of where we’ve come from, what we carry forward, and how art continues to shape the way we endure, dream, and belong.”

Lucas & Irina Meachem Recital

New Mexico Museum of Art

Filled with short and spirited solo works, this recital by Orion Weiss—hailed as a “brilliant pianist” by The New York Times and praised for his “head-spinning range of colors” by the Chicago Tribune—lets listeners revel in lesser-known gems by major 19th- and 20th-century composers, from Tchaikovsky to Copland.

Orion Weiss Piano Recital

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

“Encountering Nature” turns our American Adventures season toward wide skies and untamed landscapes, exploring how composers translate the natural world into sound. Copland’s Quiet City opens in hushed stillness, its solitary trumpet and English horn unfolding a spare, haunting dialogue that evokes empty streets at dusk and the quiet vastness beyond them. Intimate and searching, it captures the feeling of standing alone beneath an open sky. Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,” expands that perspective to monumental scale, moving from pastoral dawn to storm-tossed intensity and, ultimately, blazing affirmation. Rustic dances, birdsong-like figures, and sweeping climaxes create a journey through nature’s serenity and power.

Encountering Nature

Riverwalk Center

For one afternoon only, the graduating and incoming Young Artists of Opera Australia come together for a compelling performance of music spanning Claudio Monteverdi to Gian Carlo Menotti.

Young Artists in Concert

Sydney Opera House

“The American Sound” considers how national identity resonates through music while honoring Colorado’s milestone year. The program opens with a special co-commission by Coloradan composer Leigha Amick: a bold fanfare celebrating Colorado, performed on the 150th anniversary of the state’s admission to the Union. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings offers lyrical elegance and glowing warmth, while Copland’s Symphony No. 3 crowns the evening with expansive grandeur, weaving the iconic Fanfare for the Common Man into a sweeping symphonic statement that feels unmistakably American in scale, optimism, and sound. 

The American Sound: Colorado at 150

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

Wigmore Hall Associate Artist Gweneth Ann Rand’s inspired selection of words and music looks at migration and exile both through the lens of history and with a contemporary eye. The soprano’s choice of works was shaped by a quote from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thích Nhất Hạnh, who himself spent over half his long life as an exile in France: 'If we believe that tomorrow will be better,’ he wrote, ‘we can bear a hardship today'.

Gweneth Ann Rand soprano; Allyson Devenish piano; Simon Lepper piano

Clarence Town Park

Deeply rooted in the American spirit, Copland’s The Tender Land portrays one young woman’s quiet but radical act of choosing her own future. Set against the open landscapes of the American West, The Tender Land is a coming-of-age story about longing, independence, and resilience in the face of hardship.

The Tender Land

Temple Har Shalom

A bold American portrait, live — Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, conducted by Gemma New with narration by Academy Award-nominated actor Josh Brolin, also featuring Jasmine Arielle Barnes’ American Lament performed by mezzo-soprano and Lehrer Vocal Institute Co-Director Sasha Cooke

Academy Chamber Orchestra: Copland, Barnes & Schumann

Lobero Theatre

North Park Community School #50

North Park Community School PS #50

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

American classical music composers didn’t always view the nation’s various, vibrant folk music traditions as a valid source of inspiration—but once someone realized there’s not so much that separates a violin from a fiddle, this nation’s concert music tradition was permanently enriched. Aaron Copland used an earnest Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” as the basis of his elegant score for the Martha Graham ballet Appalachian Spring—one of several Copland works that helped to firmly establish an American classical music style. Nearly 50 years earlier, Charles Ives – a composer who eagerly embraced the unpolished spirit of traditional folk idioms – adopted three hymns for his String Quartet No. 1 (“From the Salvation Army”), presented here alongside authentic folk tunes played by Grand Picnic. And Edgar Meyer, a virtuoso bassist and composer equally fluent in chamber music, bluegrass, jazz, and more, proves with his String Quintet that mixing classical discipline with folk-music exuberance is a well in no danger of running dry.

Appalachian Spring: Music From The Mountains

Tito Muñoz makes a performance feel “like the center of a social triangle of concerts, parties, and going to church” (I Care If You Listen). Now, he throws more fun into the mix, turning the Hollywood Bowl into a sports arena during this soccer-themed classical program.

The Classical World Cup

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

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

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

The South Bend Symphony and guest conductor David Lockington present a powerful community concert honoring the service and sacrifice of our nation’s heroes. Experience patriotic favorites and uplifting orchestral music in an inspiring celebration of freedom at the Morris Performing Arts Center.

Salute to Freedom

“Folklore and Fable” invites audiences into a world where storytelling and symphonic color intertwine, revealing how legends, fairy tales, and frontier myths continue to shape our musical imagination. Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite shimmers with delicate textures and pastel hues, each movement unfolding like a storybook illustration brought gently to life. Copland’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes shifts the scene to the American West, brimming with rustic charm, open-air vitality, and the unmistakable snap of “Hoe-Down.” Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite crowns the evening with elemental force, rising from shadowy enchantment to blazing triumph, its brilliant orchestration conjuring magic, menace, and redemption in a vivid, unforgettable sound. 

Folklore & Fable

Discover the rich tapestry of American choral music with a program of soulful spirituals and contemporary masterpieces in this free concert.

Composer

Aaron Copland

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 7, 2026

Tine Thing Helseth & Friends: The Boulangerie · Southbank Centre

Nov 7, 2026

America at 250 · Anchorage Symphony Orchestra

Nov 7, 2026

Dance & Music in Motion · Fort Collins Symphony

Nov 7, 2026

Postcards from America · National Philharmonic

7 - 8 Nov, 2026

From Tchaikovsky to Copland · California Symphony

Past events

Oct 31, 2026

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet · Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Oct 30, 2026

RSNO Season 26-27: Shostakovich Seven · Usher Hall

About

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