ASO Celebrates America! in bold opening to 2022-23 Masterwork Series
SEPTEMBER 15 – The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is ready to launch another season of exciting music through its 2022-23 Masterworks series, starting with rousing favorites and exciting storytelling in “Celebrate America!”
Artistic Director and Conductor José-Luis Novo, now beginning his 18th season with the regional orchestra, packed this season with favorites like Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvořák, and Saint-Saëns and composers less known to some Annapolis audience members.
“I have the feeling this is going to be a very exciting season!” he said
But he chose to begin the Masterworks series on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, with an all-American program highlighting the diversity of the nation’s musical traditions.
Works include Aaron Copland’s “El Salón México,” a postcard impression of Mexico through its dance hall melodies; and Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” which evokes tranquil and dreamlike themes of the American South.
In addition to being the soloist for Barber’s work, renowned Soprano Janice Chandler Eteme will join the orchestra to perform Copland’s “Zion’s Walls” from “Old American Songs” and Hale Smith’s arrangement of “This Little Light of Mine” from “Four Negro Spirituals.”
Yet it will be Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” that gives audiences a chance to witness an exciting multi-media performance of seven different immigrants’ stories upon their arrival between 1910 and 1940.
“This fabulous composition by Peter Boyer honors the immigrant heritage of the United States in a very moving way,” Novo said. “For this composition, we will have video projections and poignant testimonies presented in collaboration with actors from the Classic Theatre of Maryland.”
Boyer’s newest recording with the London Symphony Orchestra (Naxos) was just released. The centerpiece of the album is Balance of Power which was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center, along with eight other Boyer works.
The first Masterworks concert of the season also brings a return of Novo’s popular ASO Chat, where the maestro discusses the music and the performances in a way sure to delight returning lovers of the orchestra and new audiences joining as part of the five-year plan to bring More Music to More People in More Places.
Edgar Herrera, executive director of the ASO, said audiences will enjoy an orchestra fresh off a triumphant summer tour of Spain.
“This musical force is performing at a higher level than ever before,” he said. “That’s in no small way the result of touring overseas and the new, three-year contract recently signed to cement our relationships with the area’s best musicians.”
Buy tickets for this concert at www.annapolissymphony.org/events/celebrate-america/.