Sat 1/18 @ 7:30PM
Last year was a big year for George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, written for solo pianist and jazz band, and combining elements of classical music and jazz. Written in 1924, all sorts of musical ensembles were celebrating its 100thanniversary.
The Akron Symphony Orchestra may be a little late but there’s never a bad time to program this groundbreaking composition. And they’re bringing in some stellar Akron-area talent to help them out: jazz pianist Theron Brown, as well as members of the Gospel Meets Symphony Choir. Brown is part of the rising generation of northeast Ohio jazz musicians. The Akron-based Zanesville native has earned degrees in both jazz and classical music from the University of Akron, and he’s co-founder/director of Akron’s Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival. He even appeared in the Miles Davis bio film Miles Ahead as a young Herbie Hancock.
It’s an all-American performance, featuring three other pieces by modern compositions. Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Suite will likely be as familiar to the audience as Rhapsody in Blue, while the other two pieces may not be. They include “Of Our New Day Begun” written by contemporary composer Omar Thomas in 2016 in tribute to the nine worshippers killed by a racist terrorist at Charleston, South Carolina’s Mother Emanuel Church in 2015. It uses “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (aka the “Negro National Anthem”) for its root material and incorporates blues and other traditional material. That piece opens the program followed by William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 4 (“Autochthonous”) written by the Black composer in 1947 to express the optimistic spirit of Americans and how former slaves had worked to shed their oppression.
The concert takes place at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron. Go here for tickets.
akronsymphony.org/rhapsody-in-blue-with-theron-brown/
University of Akron, Akron, OH 44304