All American: Gershwin and Beyond

James Gaffigan - Conductor
Jon Kimura Parker - Piano

Program
Gershwin - Promenade (Walking the Dog)
Gershwin - Piano Concerto in F
INTERMISSION
Dvorák - Suite in A major for Orchestra, Op. 98b ("American")
Barber - Symphony No. 1, Op. 9

This is a program of quintessential American music. Gershwin, the leading American composer of the Jazz Age, drew his inspiration from music halls and vaudeville. This is no more apparent than in his charming, jazzy Promenade and the rip-roaring Piano Concerto in F, performed with brio by our returning soloist and Gershwin specialist Jon Kimura Parker. Dvorák, on his visit to America in the 1890s, took musical souvenirs in the form of folk songs and spirituals that he incorporated into his works. On the podium is James Gaffigan, one of the most important young American conductors today. Philadelphian Samuel Barber went on to become one of the most prominent musical figures in developing a new American romantic style.