Events

• JOAN TOWER Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
• JESSIE MONTGOMERY Coincident Dances
• LEONARD BERNSTEIN Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
• GEORGE GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Ferde Grofé)
• GEORGE GERSHWIN An American in Paris

Celebrate the lights, sights, and sounds of summer in the city with orchestral hits from Gershwin and Bernstein, alongside joyful tributes to jazz, Baroque, and uncommon women!

American composer Joan Tower’s Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman is dedicated to “women who are adventurous and take risks.” Tower wrote her first Fanfare in 1987 for renowned conductor Marin Alsop, who, in 2016, conducted the world premiere of Tower’s Sixth Fanfare with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Lovers of New York City will recognize in Jessie Montogomery’s Coincident Dances the layers of music and sound that fill its streets and neighbourhoods. Coincident Dances is a gorgeous, evocative musical snapshot of NYC, with the orchestra as DJ for a multicultural soundtrack.

Leonard Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs gives a nod to the Baroque and then puts on its jazz shoes in this witty mashup of styles that reflects Bernstein’s seemingly effortless ability to put on any musical hat and make it his own.

Written originally for solo piano and jazz band, the great George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is another timeless melding of classical and jazz styles. The work began to take shape on a train to Boston, where Gershwin heard it as “a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot…of our metropolitan madness.” An American in Paris evokes the wild, sparkling rumpus of the City of Light, inspired by the sound of taxi horns and the quiet boulevards of Paris.

Making his NAC debut, guest pianist Matthew Whitaker is an extraordinary musician who has been connecting with audiences and creating a musical buzz since childhood, and who also happens to be blind.