ricky skaggs tour

Jackson, WY

Stephenville, tx, saint jo, tx, brownfield, me, lancaster, pa, sellersville, pa.

Ricky Skaggs Verified

Concerts and tour dates, ricky skaggs merch.

Live Photos of Ricky Skaggs

Fan Reviews

Fans Also Follow

About ricky skaggs.

• Moscow concerts Moscow concerts Moscow concerts See all Moscow concerts ( Change location ) Today · Next 7 days · Next 30 days
• Most popular artists worldwide
• Trending artists worldwide

• Tourbox for artists

Search for events or artists

• Sign up Log in

• Get the app
• Moscow concerts
• Change location
• Popular Artists
• Live streams
• Deutsch Português
• Popular artists

Ricky Skaggs

• On tour: yes
• Ricky Skaggs is not playing near you. View all concerts
• Moscow, Russian Federation Change location

36,410 fans get concert alerts for this artist.

Join Songkick to track Ricky Skaggs and get concert alerts when they play near you.

Nearest concert to you

Colonial Theatre - Keene Nh

Touring outside your city

Be the first to know when they tour near Moscow, Russian Federation

Join 36,410 fans getting concert alerts for this artist

Upcoming concerts (6)

American Music Theatre

Ryman Auditorium

Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua

The Arcada Theatre

Blue Gate Performing Arts Center

Similar artists with upcoming concerts

Tours most with, live reviews.

Ricky Lee Skaggs…bluegrass roots, southern charm and artistic style. The singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist has been making music for much longer than I’ve even been alive, and has received accolade and recognition of the highest honor, and has worked with people across a number of genres. He is well respected as an artist by many of his fans, as well as his peers.

When he takes the stage, he is extremely polite, and most definitely brings the Southern charm wherever he goes. He gets onto stage, mandolin wrapped around him ready for what’s to come, and a giant smile on his face, both of which remain with him until the end of the show. As he plays, you can see how happy it makes him, no matter where he could have been at any given moment. In between songs he is always having a conversation with the audience, not just talking at them. He will always say thank you, and for almost every song he introduced the name of it, as well as a little about the process behind writing it. Whether you like bluegrass or not, watching his live set is a learning experience, both musically and of the human condition.

Report as inappropriate

Despite Kentucky multi-instrumentalist Ricky Skaggs fast approaching the age to bank his pension, the man continues to tour at an unrelenting pace to his wide fanbase who simply cannot get enough of his genre hopping sounds and warm personality. It is definitely noticeable that Ricky himself is a huge appeal to the live show as fans absolutely love his dry wit and humorous onstage chatter.

Away from his frontman mannerisms, the music is also incredibly solid as Skaggs switches between numerous guitars as he happily moves from blues grass to folk to gospel. The audience loudly sings along during the stomping 'Blue Night' much to the delight of the musicians onstage who simply elevate their own performance style to watch the enthusiasm of the revellers. Ricky then goes on to introduce everybody joining him onstage before saying endearing thank yous as the introductions to set closer 'A Work of Love' begin. A great musician with an interactive and entertaining live show.

As always, he is the consummate entertainer. And Kentucky Thunder is just beautiful to watch as much as to hear. There was a moment when Ricky was just whipping the mule of his mandolin and I thought there’s nothing more beautiful than to see musician become such one with his instrument and music. He always brings the mountain to this Metropolis and I enjoyed the show immensely.

Band and concert great. Thought Ricky might have done a of few country hits.

Theater: Older lady in front of us never turned off the glow of her cell. She filmed holding above her head. Did texting, surfed the web, checked her Facebook and typed replies all thru program

Everything you would expect from a living legend .So down to earth and backed by some of the best musicians and harmony vocalists in the country. If you dig skilled musicians and and old school showmanship see him .

Posters (12)

Past concerts

stable hall

Arlington Music Hall

Grand Ole Opry House

View all past concerts

Ricky Skaggs tour dates and tickets 2024-2025 near you

Want to see Ricky Skaggs in concert? Find information on all of Ricky Skaggs’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Ricky Skaggs is not due to play near your location currently - but they are scheduled to play 6 concerts across 1 country in 2024-2025. View all concerts.

Next 3 concerts:

• Keene, NH, US
• Lancaster, PA, US
• Nashville, TN, US

Next concert:

Popularity ranking:

• England Dan & Jo... (9559)
• Ricky Skaggs (9560)
• Theo Katzman (9561)

Concerts played in 2024:

Touring history

Most played:

• Nashville (130)
• Washington (33)
• Atlanta (14)
• Knoxville (14)
• Dallas - Fort Worth (13)

Appears most with:

• Kentucky Thunder (72)
• Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky T... (58)
• Bruce Hornsby (31)
• Ry Cooder (31)
• Riders In the Sky (28)

Distance travelled:

Similar artists

• Most popular charts
• API information
• Brand guidelines
• Community guidelines
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Cookies settings
• Cookies policy

Get your tour dates seen everywhere.

• But we really hope you love us.

stay in tune with your favorite country stars.

Ricky Skaggs Announces 2023 Christmas Tour

Ricky Skaggs | Photo Courtesy of Skaggs Family Records

Fifteen-time GRAMMY® winner and Country Music Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs is getting in the holiday spirit with the announcement of his 2023 holiday tour, titled   Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder Christmas with Special Guests .   Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder , hit the road this December with nine holiday shows scheduled to take place in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Skaggs’ upcoming holiday trek marks his first Christmas tour in seven years.

Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder will perform in Cincinnati, OH; Nashville, TN; Charleston, SC; Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Knoxville, TN; Johnson City, TN; Charleston, SC and Augusta, GA.

The show will feature songs both old and new as Skaggs and his band perform their own blend of harmony.

“Everybody loves Christmas,” notes Skaggs. “It’s the time of year when we think about others and not ourselves. We love singing songs about the greatest birth in history, Jesus Christ. We will be performing some of the old standards we’ve all grown up with, but we will also have some instrumentals and songs that you might not be familiar with.

“Concertgoers can expect to hear bluegrass tune “Christmas Time’s A Comin,’” along with a rendition of “New Star Shining,” a hit song for Skaggs and James Taylor. Beloved classic songs “Silent Night,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Let it Snow” are part of the show, along with many other special Christmas melodies. Included in this seasonal show are sing-a-longs, rounding out an exclusive assortment of holiday jewels.

“All in all, it will be a great show for the whole family,” Skaggs adds. “Get your tickets now and bring someone with you that might not be able to afford a ticket this time of year. You’ll feel great and they will have a fun time too.”

For ticketing information, visit rickyskaggs.com/tour .

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder Christmas with Special Guests  Tour Dates:

Dec. 7 – Cincinnati, OH – Memorial Hall OTR

Dec. 8 – Chattanooga, OH – Robert Kirk Walker Theatre

Dec. 9 – Birmingham, AL – The Lyric Theatre

Dec. 10 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium

Dec. 13 – Johnson City, TN – ETSU Martin Center for the Arts

Dec. 14 – Charleston, SC – The Riviera Theater

Dec. 15 – Augusta, GA – Imperial Theatre

Dec. 16 – Knoxville, TN – Tennessee Theatre

Dec. 17 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern

About Ricky Skaggs  Earning 12 #1 hit singles, 15 GRAMMY® Awards, 13 IBMA Awards, nine ACM Awards, eight CMA Awards (including Entertainer of the Year), two Dove Awards, the ASCAP Founders Award, three honorary Doctorate degrees, inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame, IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, National Fiddler Hall of Fame, Musicians Hall of Fame, and GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the 2013 Artist-In-Residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award in the Instrumentalist category along with countless other awards, Ricky Skaggs is truly a pioneer of Bluegrass and Country music. Since he began playing music over 60 years ago, Skaggs has released more than 30 albums and has performed thousands of live shows. He started his own record label, Skaggs Family Records, in 1997 and has since released 12 consecutive GRAMMY®-nominated albums. His latest release,  Hearts Like Ours , with his wife, celebrated artist Sharon White of The Whites features the couple dueting on handpicked country love songs. And the Grand Ole Opry member has released his first-ever autobiography, “Kentucky Traveler.” The book details the life and times of Skaggs and provides a descriptive history of Country and Bluegrass music, as told by the master himself. In addition to his regular touring schedule with his band, Kentucky Thunder, he has added country tour dates as he plugs in and plays full shows of his chart-topping hits. Skaggs was a 2020 recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government.

For more information on Ricky Skaggs, visit  rickyskaggs.com .

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

• Skip to content
• Accessibility
• Buy Tickets

{{decodeURI(data.name)}}

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

• Date & Time July 25 , 2024 7:30 PM
• Time 7:30 PM
• On Sale On Sale Now
• Ticket Pricing $38.00 - $45.00

Want to make your night at the Ryman an iconic one? Snag a spot in our new and improved Ford Lounge. Hang out in our recently-expanded private space, grab some food and a top-shelf drink from the open bar, and take home a commemorative Hatch Show Print Poster.

Upgrade your ticket, you deserve it! 

Note: Must purchase show ticket separately.  

Show Sponsors

Sign Up to Receive Updates and Special Offers From The Ryman And The Opry Entertainment Group

People also viewed.

The Del McCoury Band

Steep Canyon Rangers

The Earls of Leicester

Dailey & Vincent

Old Crow Medicine Show

Venue information.

Ryman Auditorium

Ryman Auditorium, located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the most celebrated venues in modern music. Built in 1892, the historic 2,362-seat live performance venue is the most famous former home of the Grand Ole Opry and is revered by artists and music fans for its world-class acoustics. A bucket list moment for both fans and artists alike, her iconic stage has hosted performers from across genres, such as Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Charley Pride, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Harry Styles, Wu-Tang Clan, Lizzo, and thousands more. While offering a diverse lineup and thriving concert schedule with over 200 shows per year, the venue is also open for daytime tours year-round. Along with best-in-class production technologies and livestream capabilities, the Ryman has been named  Pollstar ’s Theater of the Year for 13 years through 2021.

Stay in Touch

What’s  almost  as iconic as visiting the Ryman? Always having the inside scoop! 

Sign up for exclusive updates, offers, and events, so you never miss out on what’s happening at the Mother Church.

By opting-in, you agree to receive updates and offers via text at your mobile number.  Message frequency may vary by use.  Message and data rates may apply.  Text STOP to cancel, HELP for help. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

• All Artists »

Ricky Skaggs

Ricky skaggs tour dates 2024.

• May 15, 2024 - Dec 5, 2024
• COUNTRY / FOLK

Ricky Skaggs, a renowned American country and bluegrass singer, is a living testament to the timeless appeal of traditional music. With a career spanning over 50 years, Skaggs has made an indelible mark in the music industry. His exceptional talent has earned him 15 Grammy Awards and he has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Skaggs' unique blend of bluegrass and country, combined with his mastery of the mandolin, guitar, and fiddle, have made him a beloved figure among fans and fellow musicians alike. His performances are characterized by his soulful voice, incredible musicianship, and a palpable love for his craft. ConcertFix is proud to provide up-to-date information on Ricky Skaggs' tour schedules, ticket availability, and concert details. We are committed to ensuring that fans never miss a chance to witness this legendary artist perform live.

Ricky Skaggs Concert Schedule

About ricky skaggs tour albums.

Ricky Skaggs appeared on the Country / Folk scene with the release of the album 'Waitin' for the Sun to Shine' published on April 30, 1981. The track 'Don't Get Above Your Raising' quickly became a success and made Ricky Skaggs one of the newest emerging performers at that time. Since then, Ricky Skaggs came out with the extremely popular album 'Country Gentleman: The Best Of Ricky Skaggs' which contains some of the most famous work from the Ricky Skaggs discography. 'Country Gentleman: The Best Of Ricky Skaggs' includes the single 'Don't Get Above Your Raisin' (Album Version)' which has proven to be the most recognized for fans to experience during the shows. Aside from 'Don't Get Above Your Raisin' (Album Version)' , most of other tracks from 'Country Gentleman: The Best Of Ricky Skaggs' have also become recognized as a result. A handful of Ricky Skaggs's most famous tour albums and songs are found below. After 35 years since the release of 'Waitin' for the Sun to Shine' and making a huge impact in the business, fans consistently head to hear Ricky Skaggs in person to perform hits from the entire catalog.

Ricky Skaggs Tour Albums and Songs

Ricky Skaggs: Country Gentleman: The Best Of Ricky Skaggs

• Don't Get Above Your...
• You May See Me Walkin'
• Crying My Heart Out ...
• I Don't Care
• I Wouldn't Change Yo...
• Highway 40 Blues
• You've Got A Lover
• Don't Cheat In Our H...
• Honey (Open That Door)
• Something In My Heart

Ricky Skaggs: Super Hits

• Country Boy

Ricky Skaggs: Bluegrass Rules

Ricky Skaggs: 16 Biggest Hits

Ricky Skaggs: Skaggs and Rice

Ricky skaggs concert tour questions & comments, ricky skaggs tour and concert ticket information.

• Tickets for the future Ricky Skaggs concert are in stock.
• Concert schedules for all Ricky Skaggs concerts are revised constantly.
• Sold Out concerts will not be any concern, we always have terrific seats.
• Tour schedule for Ricky Skaggs is located on this page.
• Ricky Skaggs concert schedule has finally been reported.

Ricky Skaggs may come to a city near you. View the Ricky Skaggs schedule just above and press the ticket link to view our big selection of tickets. Browse our selection of Ricky Skaggs front row tickets, luxury boxes and VIP tickets. Once you track down the Ricky Skaggs tickets you desire, you can purchase your tickets from our safe and secure checkout. Orders taken before 5pm are usually shipped within the same business day. To purchase last minute Ricky Skaggs tickets, browse through the eTickets that can be downloaded instantly.

Ricky Skaggs Top Tour Album

• Tour Cities

Concert Tracker

• Follow your favorite performers and cities
• Receive alerts when new shows are announced
• Get updates for the latest concert schedules
• Never miss a show again!

Trending Tours

Bruce Springsteen

Janet Jackson

Justin Timberlake

The Rolling Stones

Lauren Daigle

Morgan Wallen

Megan Thee Stallion

Help the Academy serve 150,000 people in the greater Lynchburg region through the arts in 2024!

• Performances
• Field Trips At the Academy
• Academy Youth Theatre
• 2024 Clay Festival Vendor
• 2024 National Juried Art Exhibition
• About the Academy
• Staff Directory
• Parking and Directions
• Access Programs
• Gift Certificates
• ACOA Membership 2024
• Membership / Donate
• Corporate Giving
• Birthday Parties
• Corporate Events and Rentals
• Social Events and Private Rentals
• The Theatrics of Teamwork
• Ticketed Rentals
• ACOA Performance Partner

Academy Center of the Arts

Lynchburg VA center for arts, culture, and community building

Ricky Skaggs

Fifteen-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Ricky Skaggs’ career is easily among the most significant in recent country music history. If Skaggs’ burgeoning trophy case full of awards wasn’t already enough evidence of that fact, consider that legendary guitarist Chet Atkins once credited Skaggs with “single-handedly saving country music.” His life’s path has taken him to various musical genres, from where it all began in bluegrass music, to striking out on new musical journeys, while still leaving his musical roots intact.

More About Ricky Skaggs

Born July 18, 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, Skaggs showed signs of future stardom at an early age, playing mandolin on stage with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe at 6 and appearing on TV with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs at 7. He emerged as a professional bluegrass musician in 1971, when he and his friend Keith Whitley were invited to join the legendary Ralph Stanley’s band the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Skaggs then went on to record and perform with progressive bluegrass acts like the Country Gentlemen and J.D. Crowe & the New South, whose self-titled 1975 Rounder Records debut album was instantly recognized as a landmark bluegrass achievement. He then led Boone Creek, which also featured Dobro ace and fellow New South alumnus Jerry Douglas. But Skaggs turned to the more mainstream country music genre in the late ‘70s when he joined Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, replacing Rodney Crowell. He became a recording artist in his own right in 1981 when his Epic label debut album Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine topped the country charts and yielded a pair of #1 hits. Overall, his productive stay at Epic Records would result in a total of 12 #1 hits. Additionally, he garnered eight Country Music Association Awards–including the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy in 1985.

Skaggs, of course, fit right in with young “new-traditionalist” ‘80s artists like Randy Travis, and helped rejuvenate the country music genre after the worn-out “Urban Cowboy” period. But, Skaggs put his own stamp on the country format by infusing his bluegrass and traditional country music roots into the contemporary Nashville sound.

Skaggs’ 1997 album Bluegrass Rules!, released on his newly-formed Skaggs Family Records label, marked a triumphant return to bluegrass—which he’s solidified ever since with a series of GRAMMY® Award winning albums, recorded with his amazing bluegrass band, Kentucky Thunder (8-time winners of the IBMA ‘Instrumental Group of the Year’). Skaggs’ label has also served as a home for similar bluegrass and roots music-oriented artists including The Whites.

In the past decade, he has been honored with inductions into the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. In 2018, a landmark year, Skaggs was also awarded membership into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and country music’s greatest honor, the Country Music Hall of Fame. Most recently, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts in 2020 for his contributions to the American music industry. Ricky struck his first chords on a mandolin over 60 years ago, and he continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. Clearly his passion for it puts him in the position to bring his lively, distinctively American form of music out of isolation and into the ears and hearts of audiences across the country and around the world. Ricky Skaggs is always forging ahead with cross-cultural, genre-bending musical ideas and inspirations.

Related Links

Facebook Event Page Artist Website

On Sale Days/Times:

Academy Member Presale begins Monday, November 13, 2023. Remaining tickets will be released to the public on Friday, November 17, 2023. All sales begin at 10 AM EST.

Academy Members Level 5+ Pre-Sale: Monday, November 13, 2023 Academy Members Level 4+ Pre-Sale: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 Academy Members Level 3+ Pre-Sale: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 Academy Members Level 1+ Pre-Sale: Thursday, November 16, 2023 General Public On-Sale: Friday, November 17, 2023

Standard Seat: $54.00* Premium Seat: $68.00* Value Seat: $39.00* Obstructed Seat: $24.00* Box Seat: $88.00* Pit Seat: $78.00*

*Plus taxes and fees

For more information or to purchase tickets to this performance, contact our  Bank of the James Ticketing Office  at (434) 846-8499.

Sponsored By:

Know before you go:

Accessibility.

Please  visit this page to learn more about accessibility at our venues .

Age Requirement

All patrons, regardless of age, must have a ticket for this event unless otherwise stated. All ages are welcome.

Camera Policy

Videography and audio recording during the performances are prohibited. Photography of the set on stage is allowed pre-show, post-show, and during intermission. But we do ask that you show our designers and visiting performers some love by crediting them (and by tagging us) in your social media posts.

Content Advisory

The Academy Center of the Arts offers a diverse selection of entertainment. Not all productions may appeal to or be appropriate for every guest or for all ages. Ticket buyers should take responsibility for making informed decisions regarding their purchases. We recommend visiting the official show website of each show you are coming to see at the Academy. If you ever have questions about the content or appropriateness of a show, please contact us at  [email protected] .

Our lobby doors open 60 minutes prior to show time. House doors open 30 minutes prior to show time for seating.

Parking & Directions

Parking is available on-site and throughout downtown Lynchburg. Our parking map (linked below) shows all of the free public and paid parking available. In addition, street parking is also available on most streets.

View Parking & Directions Information

Ticketing Policies

Ticketing purchases are non-refundable. By purchasing a ticket to an event at The Academy Center of the Arts, you are agreeing to our ticketing policy.  View our full ticketing policy.

Want to volunteer and see this show for free? Contact Mele Thompson,  [email protected] ,  for more information.

Phone: 434-528-3256

600 Main Street Lynchburg, VA 24504

• Email Updates
• Board of Trustees
• Internships
• Press & Media

Stay Up To Date

« All Events

• This event has passed.

Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Saturday Feb 3, 2024 7:30 PM

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Winston-Salem Symphony Michelle Merrill Conductor

Join the Winston-Salem Symphony for a special one-night-only performance with country and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs. The 15-time GRAMMY® winner is joined by the incomparable pickers of Kentucky Thunder and the Winston-Salem Symphony for an unforgettable evening of music.

Single tickets to this event go on sale August 1, but you can save your seat with a subscription!

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder SOLD OUT

Saturday Feb 3 7:30 PM

Reynolds Auditorium 301 N. Hawthorne Rd. Winston-Salem, NC 27104

Rideshare and Dining

What will my view be like?

While Reynolds Auditorium’s sightlines and sound are best enjoyed in the Mezzanine, Orchestra-level seating also offers superb viewing and sound, especially in rows F through O. Please bear in mind that Reynolds Auditorium is a historic venue; there is no elevator, thus the Mezzanine and Balcony levels are only accessed via stairs. Accessible seating is available on the Orchestra level at the rear of the house and along the outside left and right.

About the Performers

A life full of music. That’s the story of Ricky Skaggs. By age 21, he was already considered a “recognized master” of one of America’s most demanding art forms, but his career took him in other directions, catapulting him to popularity and success in the mainstream of country music. His life’s path has taken him to various musical genres, from where it all began in bluegrass music, to striking out on new musical journeys, while still leaving his musical roots intact.

Kentucky Thunder

“This group of guys meets my approval every night,” Ricky says.  “Each and every one of the pickers in Kentucky Thunder totally amazes me in every show…and that, to me, outweighs any award we could ever win.”  The all-star lineup of Kentucky Thunder includes Russ Carson (banjo), Jake Workman (lead guitar), Dennis Parker (baritone vocals, guitar), Gavin Kelso (bass), Mike Rogers (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar) and Billy Contreras (fiddle).

In 2003, PBS Great Performances filmed The Three Pickers at Reynolds Auditorium right here in Winston-Salem. The one-night-only bluegrass experience featured legends Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Ricky Skaggs with special guest Alison Krauss.

It’s a dream come true. Michelle Merrill talks about her first experience with the music of Ricky Skaggs … then finds out that she gets to conduct a Ricky Skaggs concert on her debut season with the Winston-Salem Symphony!

You May Also Like…

Edgar Meyer + The New World

Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony rounds out a program that includes the dazzling double bass virtuosity of Edgar Meyer.

The Music of FLEETWOOD MAC

The WSS, guest vocalists, and the fan-favorite Jeans ‘n Classics band come together to celebrate the supergroup’s decades of hits.

Saturday, Feb 3, 2024 // 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm

Reynolds auditorium, event navigation.

• « Enchanted Waters
• Edgar Meyer + The New World »

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35

The Russian master, Nicolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, was born in Tikhvin, March 18, 1844 and died in Lyubensk, near Luga (now Pskov district), on June 21, 1908. He was a brilliant composer, arranger, and teacher, whose illustrious students included Igor Stravinsky. A member of the group of composers known as “The Five,” Rimsky-Korsakov (along with Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Cui, and Borodin) played an important role in developing an idiosyncratic Russian musical voice. The author of a manual on orchestration, and prized by all as a master of the same, Rimsky-Korsakov is best known for his orchestral showpieces, including the Great Russian Easter Festival Overture , Capriccio Espagnol , and the most popular of them all, Scheherazade (1887-8). The work was first performed on November 3, 1888 in St. Petersburg and is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (one doubling on English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings. The Winston-Salem Symphony’s most recent performances of Scheherazade occurred in January 2011.

Composed in 1888, the symphonic suite in four movements based on tales from the Thousand and One Nights, Scheherazade has captured the imagination of audiences, as well as serving as a model of orchestral opulence and virtuosity. The reasons for its immense and popularity are readily apparent. Scheherazade is filled with sumptuous and tuneful melodies, brilliant splashes of orchestral color, exoticism of subject, and enough virtuoso writing to please everyone. This work has spawned other masterpieces, most notably Stravinsky’s ballets, The Firebird and Petrouchka (Stravinsky was Rimsky’s pupil) and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe . None of these scores could ever have existed without Rimsky’s model. The “plot” of Scheherazade’s story is given in the score:

The Sultan Schahriar, persuaded of the falseness and the faithlessness of women, has sworn to put to death each one of his wives after the first night. But the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by interesting him in tales she told him during one thousand and one nights. Pricked by curiosity, the Sultan put off his wife’s execution from day to day, and at last gave up entirely his bloody plan.

A sense of narrative is apparent everywhere in the piece. A solo violin serves as the voice of the Sultana. Listeners should be content to give their imaginations free reign regarding the details of each tale, since even the titles for each of the movements were afterthoughts, urged on the composer by his friends.

• The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship . Clarinets, bassoons, trombones, tuba, and massed strings introduce the menacing theme representing the Sultan. A series of wind chords, reminiscent of Mendelssohn and Weber, introduce the first of the solo violin’s many cadenzas. These, of course, are the voice of Scheherazade, our narrator. The setting of her first tale is the majestic ocean, as is made evident by ever-present rolling arpeggiated figures. The movement ends serenely.
• The Tale of the Kalender Prince .   The narrative voice of Scheherazade once again introduces the tale, the specifics of which our imaginations are left to deduce from the episodic nature of the movement. The solo bassoon ushers in an alluring theme, which is picked up by the oboe, the strings, and eventually the whole orchestra. The mood is broken by a sudden outburst. The trombone announces a threatening fragment of an idea, echoed by the muted trumpet. (An astute listener will recognize the reference to the Sultan’s theme of the first movement.) This leads to an evocative and dramatic cadenza in the clarinet, accompanied by plucked strings. The fragment is developed more fully, but is soon interrupted by a new outburst and cadenza, this time featuring the voice of the bassoon. The various musical ideas are further explored in dramatic fashion. Wistful recollections of the clarinet and bassoon cadenzas are accompanied by bravura flourishes in the harp. The movement draws to a dramatic close.
• The Young Prince and the Young Princess . Here, as in the second movement, no specific program is identifiable. Nonetheless, the sweetness of the first of this movement’s two themes ( Andantino quasi allegretto ) suggests that a tender love story is about to unfold. The second theme—ever so slightly faster reads the tempo indication—is a graceful dance, first played by the clarinet to the accompaniment of the tambourine. The reprise of the first theme is interrupted by the solo violin, a gentle reminder of the music and voice of the sultana Scheherazade.
• Festival at Baghdad : the Sea and the Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior; Conclusion . Despite the specificity of the title, we must again rely on our imaginations to fill in the scenario. The voice of the Sultan begins the movement in an angry mood. The narrative voice of the solo violin, now in double-stops and chords over a menacing sustained note in the cellos and basses, suggests that the trial of the Sultana have come to a point of crisis. The episodic music that unfolds is a highly colorful reprise of themes from previous movements, the climax of which occurs at the arrival of the principal theme from the first movement—whose majestic arpeggios are unforgettable. Appropriately, it is the solo violin, our aural guide through Rimsky’s colorful symphonic tour de force , that brings the work to its conclusion.

Program Note by David B. Levy

Matthew Aucoin: Eurydice Suite

American composer, pianist, conductor, and author Matthew Aucoin was born in Natick, MA near Boston on April 4, 1990. His eclectic musical education included performing in the indie rock band, Elephantom, followed by a degree in poetry from Harvard (2012), where he also conducted operatic productions and continued to develop his ideas as a composer of opera. He pursued a graduate diploma in composition from Juilliard (2014), where his principal teacher was Robert Beaser. This course of study was followed by a period as an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and as the Solti Conducting Apprentice at the Chicago Symphony, where he studied with Riccardo Muti. Although he has composed music in numerous genres and has worked with many of the greatest performers, ensembles, and conductors, his greatest fame lies in the world of opera. His Eurydice , co-written with librettist Sarah Ruhl, was commissioned jointly by the Metropolitan Opera and the Los Angeles Opera and it had its world premiere in Los Angeles in February 2020, followed by its Met premiere in November 2021, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin . This opera interprets the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice—itself the subject of some of the most important operas in history, dating from the early 17 th century—from the perspective of the female character, Eurydice, who is fatally bitten by a serpent on her wedding day. A joint commission from the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Winston-Salem Symphony, and the Harvard-Radcliffe orchestra led to Aucoin’s creation of an eighteen-minute suite from the opera, which received its first performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra on February 3, 2022. It is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion, 2 harps, piano, and strings.  

The composer has written the following notes about his Eurydice Suite :

The Eurydice Suite is an orchestral condensation of my opera Eurydice, which is based on Sarah Ruhl’s surreal and heartbreaking play. Like the opera, the suite begins with an unsettling sound: the metallic “ping” of oblivion that announces the passage of the newly-dead through the river of forgetfulness. And like the opera, the suite toggles between the world of the living and the subterranean realm of the dead. The suite’s first movement is a tour of the underworld: its watery percussion sounds, its “strange high-pitched noises, like a tea kettle always boiling over.” Near the end of the movement, we hear a strange sound from the contemporary world: the keening wail of a New York subway train pulling out of a station. Eurydice, newly arrived in death, hallucinates that she is alone on some unknown train platform, waiting for someone—she can’t quite remember who—to meet her. The second movement pays a visit [to] the world above, where Orpheus (in the guise of a solo clarinet) mourns luxuriantly. He drops a letter into the earth, hoping it will reach the underworld; and as his music fades away, we return down below, where Eurydice’s father patiently builds her a room out of string. In the third movement, the string section embodies the slow weaving of that delicate room. The fourth movement is a phantasmagorical montage of the opera’s final act: the disastrous walk toward the world above, and the many missed connections that lead to every character being dipped once again in the river of forgetfulness.

Program Note by David B. Levy/Matthew Aucoin, © 2023

Joseph Bologne: Overture to L’amant Anonyme

Composer and violinist Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in Baillif, Guadeloupe on December 25, 1745 and died in Paris, June 9, 1799. He is one of 18 th -century music history’s most intriguing figures, long known mainly to music historians but relatively unknown to audiences until recently. Interest in composers of color has led to world-wide renewed interest in his life and music, both of which have allowed his music to emerge from the relative, and undeserved, obscurity. As a result, audiences are discovering not only a fresh musical voice from the past, but research has restored Bologne’s reputation as a master of many skills, including his fame as a champion fencing master. Indeed, no less a figure than John Adams, who encountered Bologne in Paris, judged him to be the “most accomplished man in Europe.” His Symphony no. 2 in D Major is in three movements and dates, as best as we can tell, from the 1770s. Also known for his operas, the L’amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover) dates from 1780 and is the only one of Bologne’s six operas to have survived. Its overture is a reworking of his Symphony no. 2 in D Major, dating from the 1770s. It is scored for 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings.

As a graduate student in musicology, the name of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was brought to my attention by Professor Barry Brook of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Brook, whose expertise was in 18 th -century music, shared with me and my fellow aspiring musicologists the importance of this composer in the development of the genre known as the symphonie concertante ; a cross between symphony and concerto for two or more instruments. This type of composition was especially popular in Paris, but fine examples stemmed from the pens of Haydn, Mozart, and others.

Bologne was the son of a white planter, George Bologne, and his African slave Nanon. The title Chevalier de Saint-Georges became official when his father acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre du Roi . The family resettled in France in 1753, after which Joseph began his tutelage as a champion swordsman, leading eventually to his earning the title of Gendarme de la Garde du Roi as well as the title of Chevalier . After George Bologne returned to Guadeloupe, Joseph, who became the beneficiary of an annuity created by his father, remained in France, becoming the darling of the elite, partly based on his expertise as a fencing master. The great American diplomat John Adams dubbed him as “the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, shooting, dancing, fencing, and music.”

Much less is known of his early musical training, although evidence suggests he was already known in musical circles as early as early as 1764, based largely on his skill as a violinist and composer. He soon became the leader (concertmaster) of a new orchestra, the Concerts des Amateurs. This opportunity led to his composition of two concertos for violin which demonstrated his extraordinary skills as a virtuoso. Under his guidance, the Orchestra of the Amateurs became one of Europe’s leading ensembles.

His success led in 1776 to a proposal that Joseph be named director of the Paris Opéra, but racism reared its ugly head as a faction petitioned Queen Marie Antionette, refusing to be governed by a mulatto. Louis XVI decided to nationalize the institution, thus blunting Saint-Georges’ critics. As a result, the composer turned his attention increasingly toward the composition of operas. But by the 1780s, he again took up the mantle of orchestra leader and founded the Concert de la Loge Olympique , the organization that commissioned the illustrious Joseph Haydn to compose his six “Paris” Symphonies (nos. 82-87). While music, opera, and fencing remained central to Saint-Georges’ life, he also became a strong advocate for equality for black people in France and England. He thus was, and once again has become, a symbol for racial equality. A man of myriad talents once again is receiving richly deserved recognition as an important cultural figure.

The Overture to his opera, “L’amant anonyme” uses the same music as his Symphony no. 2, a cheerful work in three movements played without pause. The outer movements are exuberant representatives of the popular galant style of the Classical era, while the central slow movement, a rondo in the minor mode, adds a touch of pathos. The three-part structure is the same one found in 18th-century overtures in the Italian style. Such works were often identified as “Sinfonia,” and were among the forms that contributed to the evolution of the symphony.

Program Note by David B. Levy, ©2022/2023  

Make a Pledge

Thank you for caring to make a commitment to bring music to life in our growing community. Your pledge of support will enable us to reach new and existing audiences with concert and educational experiences here in Winston-Salem and beyond.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 “Choral”

One of history’s pivotal composers, Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16 or 17, 1770 in Bonn, and died in Vienna on March 26, 1827.  His Ninth Symphony, op. 125 was composed over a period of many years, most intensely between 1822 and 1824, culminating in its premiere in Vienna’s Kärtnertortheater on May 7, 1824.  It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, timpani, and strings. The Winston-Salem Symphony’s most recent performances of this work occurred in October 2016.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has acquired a status of universal approbation unmatched in the symphonic repertory. The British affectionately call Beethoven’s Ninth the “Choral” Symphony, while the Japanese, who each December present well over one hundred performances of it, have dubbed the work “Daiku” (“Big Nine”). It is a mainstay of concert halls and music festivals throughout the world. Wagner saw fit to conduct a performance of it when he laid the cornerstone of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1872.   In the summer of 1989 in China, revolutionary students gathered in Tiananmen Square and played its finale through loudspeakers in order to bolster their spirits. Later the same year, in Berlin, Leonard Bernstein led a ceremonious performance of it, changing Schiller’s “Freude” (Joy) to “Freiheit” (Freedom) in symbolic celebration of the razing of the Wall which had divided that city.

The Ninth is, at the same time, one of Beethoven’s most perplexing

compositions—a work that remains one of the world’s most revered musical masterpieces, but which is not without its problematic side. Its musical syntax is a curious mixture of complexity and simplicity, and over time critics have seen fit to assail it on both counts, although virtually no composer after Beethoven could escape the Ninth’s immense shadow. Stemming as it did from a particular time and circumstance—Vienna during the during the age of Metternich—with all the musical, social, and cultural associations of that period, the Ninth Symphony has emerged as a ceremonial piece par excellence, befitting artistic and political summitry, as well as a populist symbol for freedom-loving citizens from Beijing to Berlin. The Ninth Symphony is much more than a monument of Western music: it is a cultural icon. UNESCO declared it to be the first musical composition to be entered into the Memory of the World Register in 2001.

Beethoven’s last symphony represents the culmination of two discrete projects.  The first was the fulfillment of a commission for a new symphony tendered by the Philharmonic Society of London in 1822, itself the partial satisfaction of an earlier request from the Society for two new symphonies. The other project dates back to 1792, the year in which we have the first evidence of Beethoven’s interest in setting Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 poem, An die Freude (Ode to Joy) , to music. The joining of these separate enterprises into the Ninth Symphony did not occur until relatively late in the symphony’s evolution. First performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824, the Ninth Symphony immediately made a tremendous impact, despite its faulty execution.

Indeed, the work itself seems immeasurable. The opening Allegro un poco maestoso is far from the longest first movement that Beethoven wrote, yet its scale is greater than any other. One reason for this lies in the density of its content. From a barely audible murmur, fragments in the strings grow in speed and intensity as they coalesce to form the titanic first theme. The time scale in which this occurs is small, but its implication is immense. Never before, and rarely since, has such force ever been unleashed in music. The opening of the movement is unique, yet all subsequent imitations of it (Bruckner and Wagner, most notably) were conceived in fully self-conscious homage to Beethoven. Equally cataclysmic in its impact is the explosion in D major that launches the movement’s recapitulation. The powerful funereal peroration from the coda also has also been imitated—most notably by Gustav Mahler—but never equaled. The first movement of the Ninth Symphony is tragedy writ large.

The scherzo, which is placed as the symphony’s second movement, offers little relief. Tragedy is now re-played as farce as the strings and kettledrums hammer out its distinctive motif. After a full-scale treatment of the Molto vivace in sonata form, replete with a fugal exposition and metrical trickery in its development section, the pastoral trio in D major offers the first true moment of respite. The word scherzo means joke, but anyone familiar with Beethoven know that his humor often has its dark side, and the scherzo of the Ninth Symphony is one of the demonic ever penned. The final “joke” of this movement comes in its coda, where Beethoven threatens to repeat the trio section, only to thwart our expectation with an abrupt ending—a gesture that he used in the scherzo of his Seventh Symphony (1812).

The Adagio molto e cantabile third movement dwells in the realm of pure melody and dance.  Aestheticians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were fond of making a distinction between the “sublime” (lofty) and the “beautiful” in art.  If the first two movements are representative of the former, the third movement of the Ninth Symphony surely is an exemplar of the latter. The movement is cast as a rondo with varied reprises for each of its two themes.  A distinguishing characteristic of the first theme is the woodwind echo that occurs at the end of each phrase of the hymnal theme played by the strings, a feature that is retained in each of its returns.  The second theme is a contrasting Andante moderato in triple meter. The literal midpoint of the movement (and, in fact, the entire symphony) is its ethereally calm development section, where the color of woodwinds ( Harmoniemusik ) dominates its landscape. The fourth horn emerges out of this heavenly serenity in a celebrated passage which culminates in an unaccompanied scale.  Listeners should attend to how this instrument continues to play a prominent, and often virtuosic, role throughout the remainder of the movement.

The onset of the finale rudely shatters the calm with a glancing dissonance and a passage that Wagner dubbed the “horror fanfare” ( Schreckensfanfare). Evidence from Beethoven’s sketches reveal that Beethoven had considerable difficulty effecting a transition from the purely instrumental opening movements to the choral part of the finale. How, after all, does one introduce an element that never before had belonged to a genre? Using every bit of his ingenuity, and bringing his experience gained from previous works to bear (the “Choral” Fantasy and several piano sonatas), Beethoven hit upon the idea of using instrumental recitative—played here by the cellos and contrabasses—as a conduit from the world of purely instrumental music to that of instrumental/vocal.

The instrumental recitative is a superbly effective device, used as a link between fragmented reminiscences from the previous movements. The reason for these thematic recollections has been interpreted by analysts in various ways.  Most writers suggest that the recitative serves as a rebuff of the spirit of these earlier movements, each of which in turn is spurned by the cellos and basses until the famous “Joy” melody is presented.  But there is another possible reason why Beethoven elected to bring back these themes, a purpose that is as much prospective as it is retrospective. The elaborate multi-sectional finale plays out as an entire four-movement symphonic structure in miniature.  Viewed from this perspective, the episode of recitative and recollection is an introductory prefiguration of the landscape of the entire finale.

The presentation of the “Joy” theme in variations (both instrumental and vocal) comprises the gesture of a first “movement.”  The portions of Schiller’s An die Freude used in this part are the ones that are most overtly profane or pagan in spirit. This is followed by the “Turkish” music that acts as a kind of scherzo , which in turn yields to a solemn slow “movement” ( Seid umschlungen, Millionen ). This third section devotes itself to the most overtly sacred parts of Schiller’s poem. The re-entry of the “Turkish” percussion movements marks the onset of the “finale,” where Beethoven joins together the profane and the sacred in a symbolic marriage of Athens and Jerusalem. Joy, then, serves as the agent through which “all men become brothers.”

Notes by David B. Levy © 2008/2016/2019/2022

Carlos Simon: Fate Now Conquers

American composer Carlos Simon was born in 1986 in Washington, DC. The son of a preacher, he was raised on a mix of the improvisatory nature of Gospel music and the more formal structural elements found in Classical music. His formal musical studies were pursued at Morehouse College, Georgia State University, and the University of Michigan. Among his teachers at Michigan were Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. As a music educator, Simon has served on the music faculties at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He currently serves as Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. In 2021 the Sphinx Organization awarded him the Medal of Excellence, and he has been Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Simon was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his album, Requiem for the Enslaved . His five-minute-long orchestral composition, Fate Now Conquers , received its first performance on March 26, 2020 at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Since its premiere, it has been performed widely throughout the United States. The work is scored for Flute, 2 oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.

The inspiration for Fate Now Conquers comes from an entry in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Tagebuch, a diary that he kept from the years 1812-1818. Although Beethoven’s formal education was sporadic, he prided himself on reading as much ancient and contemporary literature and philosophy available to him. We know that Homer was among the ancients with whom he was familiar because of two entries, one each from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Beethoven lamented that his familiarity with some authors was limited to translations. The reference fate in the Tagebuch, interestingly contains metrical scansions, indicating perhaps that he may have considered setting the quotation from the Iliad to music. Carlos Simon wrote of his Fate Now Conquers:

This piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebook, written in 1815:

Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book: But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share in my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit and that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.

Using the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depict the uncertainty of life that hovers over us.

We know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad, in the end, it seems that Beethoven relinquished himself to fate. Fate now conquers.

Those familiar with the Allegretto from Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 will be hard pressed to hear actually how its “fluid harmonic structure” is articulated in Fate Now Conquers. Nevertheless, the Beethovenian idea of “seizing fate by the throat” and the struggle it represents come through clearly, perhaps representing for Carlos Simon, the social struggles that perplex our own society, as well as the hope of overcoming adversity in all its manifestations.

Program Note by David B. Levy/Carlos Simon, © 2023

Ludwig van Beethoven: “Leonore” Overture No. 3, op 72b and “Mir ist so wunderbar” from Fidelio

One of history’s pivotal composers, Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 15 or 16, 1770 in Bonn, and died in Vienna on March 26, 1827. Of the four overtures associated with his only opera, Fidelio (originally entitled Leonore ), the Leonore Overture no. 3 was composed in 1805-6 for its first revision. Its first performance took place on 29 March 1806, in Vienna’s Theater an der Wien. The vocal quartet,“Mir ist so wunderbar,” occurs in Act I of the opera.  The overture is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings. The Winston-Salem Symphony first performed the overture in October 1959; its most recent performances took place in September 2012. These mark the first Symphony performances of the Act 1 quartet.

Leonore, ou L’amour conjugal is the title of a rescue drama written by the French playwright, Jean Nicolas Bouilly. The play would attract little attention nowadays were it not for the fact that Beethoven based his only opera, Fidelio (originally entitled Leonore ), upon it. The play, originally set against the backdrop of the French revolution of 1789, is filled with the virtues of love, loyalty, and political freedom that were ever near and dear to the composer’s heart.

Fidelio exists in three versions, and Beethoven composed no fewer than four separate overtures for it. The original version was first produced in Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on November 20, 1805 under the worst possible circumstances. Beethoven not only had to deal with a weak libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner, but the occupation of the Austrian capital by Napoleon’s Grand Army only days earlier made the Viennese citizenry too frightened to leave home, let alone to attend the theater. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the enterprise failed miserably.

The overture used for this earliest version of the opera is now known, oddly, as Leonore Overture no. 2 .  What is now referred to as the Leonore Overture no. 1 was composed in 1806-7 for a projected performance of Fidelio in Prague. The performance never took place, however, and this overture was never performed during Beethoven’s lifetime.

When Beethoven revised Fidelio in 1805-6, with improvements to the libretto provided by his friend Stephan von Breuning, he composed the Leonore Overture no. 3 .  This work has many elements in common with the opera’s original overture, now known as the Leonore Overture no. 2 —including off-stage trumpet calls—and it still was intended to be played before the opera begins. When Beethoven made his final revisions to the opera in 1814, he wrote an entirely new overture, known as the Fidelio Overture.  This new overture, however, raised a dilemma for those conductors who wish to use the musically superior Leonore Overture no. 3 within the context of the opera. Some conductors choose to perform it at the beginning of Act II. Others opt to place it at some point after the dungeon scene of Act II—the climactic moment when Leonore, disguised as the assistant jailer, Fidelio, rescues her unjustly imprisoned husband, Florestan, from murder at the hands of the evil and ambitious minister, Pizarro. The trouble with the first option is that the dramatic events of the scenes that follow are rendered dramatically redundant. The problem with placing the overture after the rescue scene is that the overture loses its impact, the audience having already experienced the very events that the overture exhibits in purely musical sounds. When performed as a concert piece, as it is on this program, however, none of these issues are of concern.

The overture’s introduction, after its suspenseful opening descriptive of Florestan’s dark subterranean prison cell, develops material derived from his introductory aria in Act II , “In des Lebens Frühlingstagen ” (“In the Springtime of Life”), where the prisoner reflects on the justness of his cause and hope for liberation.  Most of the music of the main body of the sonata-form overture is based upon material not used in the opera itself, but it captures its heroic spirit admirably. The trumpet calls that announce the arrival of Don Fernando, the king’s minister, in the opera are placed at the moment of greatest musical tension for a piece cast in sonata-form—near the end of the development section. A wonderful element in the recapitulation is the addition of virtuosic writing for the principal flute and bassoon. The overture ends with an appropriately heroic coda that is similar to the one that ends the finale of his Symphony no. 3 ( Eroica ). The Leonore Overture no. 3 offers further confirmation of Beethoven’s genius as the unsurpassed master of dramatic expression through purely instrumental means.

The vocal quartet from Act I of Fidelio, “Mir ist so wunderbar” (I feel so strange), is a wonderful example of how four different characters (Marzelline, Fidelio, Rocco, and Jacquino) can express completely different emotional states while singing the same music. It begins with soft and profoundly moving introduction in the lower strings of the orchestra, followed by the singers each singing the same melody in the form of a round (or canon). The first character we hear is Marzelline, daughter of the jailer, Rocco. She believes that Fidelio (Leonore disguised as a young man) is in love with her. Recognizing this, Leonore/Fidelio comments on how precarious a moment this is. The affable jailor, Rocco, comments that Fidelio and Marzelline would make a fine couple, while Jacquino, Rocco’s assistant jailor who is in love with Marzelline, expresses his frustration and jealous anger over the situation.

While each of the singers carries the same tune, Beethoven expertly changes the orchestral accompaniment in the woodwinds to reflect the emotional state of each character. After each of the four characters make their entrance, the strings add a new and tender layer of sonority to the mix. The end result is one of the greatest glories of vocal ensemble writing ever created.

I’m feeling so strange, My heart feels so tight; He loves me, that is clear, How happy I shall be!

How great is the danger! How faint the ray of hope! She loves me, that is clear, O unspeakable pain!

She loves him, that is clear; Yes, my girl, he shall be yours! A fine young couple; They will be happy.  

My hair stands on end! Her father concents. I’m feeling so strange, There’s nothing I can do!

Program Note by David B. Levy © 2012/2023

Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”

The Czech master Antonin Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, on September 8, 1841; and died in Prague, May 1, 1904 . His “New World” Symphony remains his most popular work. Composed during his residency in the United States in 1892-3, the work received its premiere on December16, 1893 in New York’s Carnegie Hall. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns,  trumpet, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings. The most recent Winston-Salem Symphony performance of this work is January 2017, under the direction of Robert Moody.

In early 1991, a three-story brick row house at 327 East 17th Street in Manhattan was declared a national landmark.  A plaque above the first story declares that this was the New York home from 1892 to 1895 for the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvořák, who composed his Symphony no. 9 (“From the New World”) during a period from January to May 1893. Unfortunately, the brownstone was taken down to make room for the expansion of a nearby hospital and the corner near where it stood was renamed Dvořák Place. The composer moved to New York after Jeannette Thurber invited him to assume the directorate of the National Conservatory of Music.  Shortly after taking up residence there, Dvorák communicated the following to a friend in Prague:

“We [the composer, his wife, and two children] live four minutes from my school in a very pleasant house.  Mr. Steinway sent me a piano, free, so we have one good piece of furniture in the parlor.  The rent is $80 a month, a lot for us, but a normal price here.”

Ever since it received its first performance in New York City on December 16, 1893 with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic, Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony has remained an extremely popular orchestral work.  The Czech master wrote two major works, as well as some smaller ones, during his extended visit to the United States, which included a short summer vacation spent with a colony of Czech immigrants in Spillville, Iowa.  One of these compositions was the String Quartet, op. 96 (“American”), the other was this, his last symphony.  Had Mrs. Thurber had her way, Dvořák also would have composed an opera based on Longfellow’s story of the Native Americans Minnehaha and Hiawatha, as she hoped that Dvořák would become the founder of a new American “school” of composition.  As we shall see, at least some of Mrs. Thurber’s hopes found expression in his “New World” Symphony.

Folk music had always played a vital role in Dvořák’s music, and his “American” efforts serve to remind us that many folk musics have elements in common.  The “New World” Symphony speaks its “American” with a distinctly Slavic accent.  The title for the work, “From the New World” is the composer’s own, and he explained that it was inspired by “impressions and greetings” from his host country.  Among these impressions must be counted the music of African-Americans, whose melodies he learned from one of his students at the Conservatory, Henry Thacker Burleigh.  It is difficult to determine just how well-versed Dvořák was in the authentic musical idiom of Native Americans, but the famous Largo movement of the “New World” Symphony, was inspired, according to the composer, by a passage from Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha.”  The famous English horn theme of this Largo is still known by many people as a “spiritual” with the words “Goin’ Home.”  The Symphony is filled with many such appealing folk-like themes.

Another important element in the “New World” Symphony is its cyclic construction, in which a motto theme, first heard near the beginning of the first movement, is brought back at strategic moments in the subsequent movements.  A careful listener will discern that this motto itself is the progenitor of other themes, thereby strengthening the thematic unity of the entire work.  Dvořák also provides many masterful moments of orchestration and harmony, none, perhaps, more beautiful than the succession of brass chords at the beginning and end of the Largo .

While the composer was still in America, he sent the manuscript for this symphony to his German publisher Simrock, who in turn showed them to Dvořák’s friend and advisor, Johannes Brahms.  Brahms saw fit to make certain corrections, and even some wholesale changes—especially in the finale—where he altered some of Dvořák’s tempos.

Notes by David B. Levy © 2005/2016

Edgar Meyer: Concerto No. 1 for Double Bass

Bassist and composer Edgar Meyer was born on November 24, 1960 in Oak Ridge, TN. His extraordinary talent as a soloist, composer, and collaborator has brought him together with a  vast array of musical artists, including Joshua Bell , Hilary Hahn , Yo-Yo Ma , Jerry Douglas , Béla Fleck , Zakir Hussain , Sam Bush , James Taylor , Chris Thile , Mike Marshall , Mark O’Connor , Alison Krauss , Mary Chapin Carpenter , Guy Clark , and the trio Nickel Creek . His earliest studies on the bass were with his father, Edgar Meyer, Sr., starting when he was five years old. In 2000, he won the Avery Fisher Prize and in 2002 he was named a MacArthur Fellow . Meyer’s collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor on the widely acclaimed Sony Classical disc Appalachia Waltz brought him a wider audience and greater acclaim than one usually associates with a virtuoso on his instrument. The impressive variety of artists with whom Meyer works gives ample evidence of the breadth of his musical interests and accomplishments. Meyer is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Double Bass at Vanderbilt University ‘s Blair School of Music , as well as at the Curtis Institute of Music. He is also an artist-faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School . Meyer is the author of three concertos for his instrument. The Concerto no. 1 in D Major was composed in 1993.

The following program notes were written by John Henken for the Los Angeles Philharmonic:

“Most of the music I’ve become interested in is hybrid in its origins,” Meyer says. “Classical music, of course, is unbelievably hybrid. Jazz is an obvious amalgam. Bluegrass comes from 18th-century Scottish and Irish folk music that made contact with the blues. By exploring music, you’re exploring everything.” Meyer’s Bass Concerto No. 1 was composed in 1993 (he has since written another solo concerto and a Double Concerto for Cello and Bass) at the instigation of Peter Lloyd, principal bass of the Minnesota Orchestra, the ensemble with which Meyer played the premiere, conducted by Edo de Waart. The opening solo lick, a bluesy upward swagger with an emphatic punctuation, sets the stylistically protean tone for the piece. The orchestra suggests something more ominous, eventually luring the soloist up into chill and glossy heights. The sense of barely stilled worry ends with the understated return of the opening lick. The middle movement is in the three-part song form typical of classical concertos. In the first section the bass soars lyrically over a pizzicato accompaniment, sounding like a thoroughly acculturated Satie gymnopédie , although Meyer says that he picked up the idea from Haydn’s C-major Violin Concerto. The contrasting central section is agitated and driven, bustling urgently before slipping back into a state of lyric grace, this time with oboe joining the bass in tandem lines. The finale explodes with fiddling fury, given only more energy by its rooted weight in the bass register, though this too slips its moorings and spins off into instrumental thin air. “I got the idea for this type of tune and the way of playing it from hearing Sam Bush play the violin and mandolin,” the composer says. (Bush was a partner in several projects with Meyer, going back to the 1980s and the newgrass band Strength in Numbers.) Celtic modality, blues engines, suggestions of John Adams in the scoring, and strenuous virtuosity all combine in this movement, also in a three-part form, with a free-floating middle and cadenza.

Program Note by David B. Levy/John Henken (2012), © 2016/2023

Giovanni Bottesini: Concerto No. 2 in b minor 

String bass virtuoso, composer, and conductor, Giovanni Bottesini was born in Crema, Lombardy on December 22, 1821 and died in Parma on July 7, 1889. His activities as a conductor were important, but he is best remembered for advancing the technique of the string or double bass in the Romantic era. His extraordinary skill as a performer resulted in a significant number of his own compositions for this instrument, including two concertos, chamber works, variations on themes from opera, and a host of assorted works for bass and piano. His Concerto for Contrabass and Orchestra no. 2 is considered one of his finest compositions.

One rarely thinks of the string (double) bass as the featured instrument for a concerto, yet the extraordinarily gifted Giovanni Bottesini has left two such works for posterity. The son of a musician, Bottesini started out as a violinist. His father, recognizing his son’s talent, decided to send him to the Milan Conservatory to further develop his skills, but the family did not have sufficient funds to pay tuition and expenses. As fate would have it, there were scholarships available for bass and bassoon. Amazingly, the young musician was able, after only a few weeks’ practice, to demonstrate enough skill and promise on the bass to gain admittance. A sign of his success was the awarding of a prize of 300 francs, which Bottesini used to purchase a fine instrument made in 1716 by Carlo Giuseppe Testore (the instrument is now in the possession of a private investor in Japan). Thus was launched the career of the “Paganini of the Double Bass.”

Bottesini’s virtuosity as a bassist, however, was not his only calling card. After an extended period of touring as a soloist that took him from Milan to America, Cuba, and England, he became a noted opera conductor in Paris, London, and Italy. His good friend Giuseppe Verdi was sufficiently impressed with Bottesini’s skill as a conductor to have him direct the premiere of his Aida in Cairo on December 27, 1871. Not surprisingly, Bottesini also was the composer of several operas—works that are seldom performed, despite the fact that some of them were well received at their premieres.

While the modern string bass has four strings, in the nineteenth century many performers, including Bottesini used only three, which Bottesini tuned a step higher than normal. This configuration makes the music of his works for the instrument all the more demanding. He also preferred the so-called “French” grip of the bow (overhand grip, as used by the cello, viola, and violin) over the underhand “German” grip. His Concerto no. 2 remains one of the instrument’s most demanding challenges, whose three movements explore the full range of its capability, from rapid passagework to full-throated operatic lyricism. Dramatic fire—as found in the music of his friend Verdi—also are hallmarks of this unusual composition.

Program Note by David B. Levy, 2015/2023

Jessie Montgomery: Strum

Born in New York City in 1981, African American composer, musician, and educator, Jessie Montgomery is one of the most vital voices of her generation. Her studies began at Manhattan’s Third Street Music School Settlement. She later went on to receive a degree in violin performance at Juilliard and a master’s degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University (2012). She has been actively involved with the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization in supporting and encouraging young African American and Latinx string instrumentalists. Her works have been performed by many significant arts institutions (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, to name but a few). She also has worked collaboratively with numerous colleagues in both music and dance. Strum began its life as a string quintet in 2006. She later made a string quartet version (2008), reaching its final version in 2012 in celebration of the 15 th annual Sphinx Competition.

In her own program notes for Strum , Jessie Montgomery wrote:

Originally conceived for the formation of a cello quintet, the voicing is often spread wide over the ensemble, giving the music an expansive quality of sound. Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.

Living up to its title, the work uses extensive pizzicato (plucking) effects, evoking the idea of a banjo, over which evocative musical fragments are played (arco) with the bow. In kaleidoscope fashion, the music shifts from idea to idea, keeping the listeners on their toes from start to finish. The work, in its string quartet version, has been recorded by the Catalyst Quartet as part of the album Strum: Music for Strings (2015) on the Azica label.

Program note by David B. Levy/Jessie Montgomery, © 2021/2015

Maurice Ravel: La valse

Maurice Ravel was born March 7, 1875 of parents of Swiss and Basque descent in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées. He died December 28, 1937 in Paris. La valse had its first performance in Paris with Camille Chevillard conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra on December 12, 1920. It is orchestrated for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, glockenspiel, 2 harps, and strings. The work was last performed by the Winston-Salem Symphony on January 7, 8, and 10, 1995 with Peter Perret conducting.

Symphonic poem or ballet? Virtuoso work for piano or orchestral show piece? Sentimental reminiscence of Imperial Vienna or frenetic dance of death? La valse has at one time or another represented all of these things, and more. Ravel himself was not entirely certain. The work we know as La valse (The Waltz), choreographic poem for orchestra, completed in 1920, underwent many changes since its initial conception in 1906 under the provisional title (by 1914) of Wien (Vienna), “an apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, linked in my mind with the impression of a fantastic whirl of destiny” and homage to Johann Strauss. Aside from its purely musical evolution, one also ought to take into account the impact of two tragedies–one personal and the other global–the death of the composer’s mother, and the First World War.

The death of Marie Delouart Ravel on January 5, 1917 came as a devastating blow from which the composer would in some respects never recover. Letters from the end of 1919, when Ravel was finishing La valse , bear witness to his continuing grief. As for the war (Ravel served in the French army as a truck driver), it seems entirely plausible that this experience caused the composer to see the Viennese waltz in a different light. Interestingly, Ravel refused to join his colleagues in endorsing an official French ban on modern German and Austrian music during the war, asserting, according to Arbie Orenstein, that “the best way to defend French music would be for French composers to write good music” (Ravel: Man and Musician, New York, 1975). Ravel’s refusal to accept the Legion of Honor in 1920 is further evidence of his single-minded independent spirit. Yet, as Erik Satie observed: “Ravel refuses the Legion of Honor, but all of his music accepts it.” Unfortunately, the impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, with whom Ravel and so many other important composers (including Stravinsky) had worked, refused to accept La valse as a ballet, calling it a “masterpiece,” but more a “portrait of a ballet” than a scenario for a ballet proper. This rejection precipitated a permanent break between Ravel and Diaghilev. La valse received a concert performance with Camille Chevillard conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra on December 12, 1920 to considerable critical acclaim. Ida Rubinstein, for whom Ravel composed his Boléro, staged La valse as a ballet in Paris on May 23, 1929, but the piece is still more commonly heard on concert programs. Versions of La valse also exist for solo piano and for two pianos, although it is not entirely clear as to whether these preceded or followed the orchestral version.

La valse begins with low-pitched instruments, setting a sinister tone as the pulse of the triple-meter dance is established. The pulse is further colored by fragments of melodies and washes of orchestral sound. Carl E. Schorske gives an impressive characterization of the piece, viewing it as a metaphor for the “violent death of the nineteenth-century world”:

Although Ravel celebrates the destruction of the world of the waltz, he does not initially present that world as unified. The work opens rather with an adumbration of the individual parts, which will compose the whole: fragments of waltz themes, scattered over a brooding stillness. Gradually the parts find each other–the martial fanfare, the vigorous trot, the sweet obligato, the sweeping major melody. Each element is drawn, its own momentum magnetized, into the wider whole. Each unfolds its individuality as it joins its partners in the dance. The pace accelerates; almost imperceptibly the sweeping rhythm passes over into the compulsive, then into the frenzied. The concentric elements become eccentric, disengaged from the whole, thus transforming harmony into cacophony. The driving pace continues to build when suddenly caesuras appear in the rhythm; the auditor virtually stops to stare in horror at the void created when a major element for a moment falls silent, ceases to act. Partial paralysis of each element weakens the movement, and yet the whole is moving, relentlessly driving as only compulsive three-quarter time can. Through to the very end, when the waltz crashes in a cataclysm of sound, each theme continues to breathe its individuality, eccentric and distorted now, in the chaos of totality. (Fin-de-siècle Vienna, New York, 1979)

The ultimate destruction of the waltz is symbolized in the last measures by a quadruplet–a four-beat pattern that occupies the same space of time as three beats.

Program Note by David B. Levy, © 1994/2013

Douglas Cuomo: a raft, the sky, the wild sea

American composer Douglas J. Cuomo was born in Tuscon, AZ on February 13, 1958. He was raised in the San Francisco Bay area and Amherst, MA. Starting out his musical education at an early age on trumpet, he switched to guitar, and was fortunate to start learning from two jazz greats: drummer Max Roach and saxophonist Archie Shepp both of whom taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His studies continued at Wesleyan University and the University of Miami-Coral Gables with degrees in Jazz Studies. He later got involved in music for the theater and television, composing themes and music for shows such as “Sex and the City” (HBO) and “Now with Bill Moyers” (PBS). He has also written music in a wide variety of popular and classical idioms for numerous notable performers and ensembles, as well as winning many honors and grants. His Saxophone Concerto, a raft, the sky, the wild sea , was co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Winston-Salem Symphony. Its world premiere took place on October 14, 2022 in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall with soloist Joe Lovano and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Robert Spano. It is scored for solo tenor saxophone, 3 flutes (piccolo, alto flute), 3 oboes (English horn), 3 clarinets (bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp, and strings.

Composer Douglas J. Cuomo wrote the following notes for the European premiere of a raft, the sky, the wild sea :

While composing this piece I was imagining an inner voyage, one that is sometimes calm and reassuring, sometimes startling and turbulent. You’re being taken somewhere, but you’re unsure where you’re going or how you’ll get there. This uncertainty about the big picture puts the focus on what’s happening right now, in this instant. And then in the next instant, and the next, and the next. This is all of us, each on our own metaphysical raft under the open sky, trying to cross the wild sea. But for millions of people throughout the world this is not a metaphor. For those who are forced to flee their homeland to seek safety and a better life, it’s a description of a harrowing physical reality. This piece also recognizes these children, women and men, for whom the raft, the sky and the sea are indescribably dangerous, and for whom the journey is real. Written for the world-renowned jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano, a raft, the sky, the wild sea draws on my background in both the jazz and classical worlds. Its musical language references the vocabularies of both contemporary classical music (building a large-scale three-movement musical structure, Lutosławski-influenced strategies of pitch organization and harmonic language, etc.) and jazz (traditional ballad playing, modal improvisation, the blues, etc.). As in a traditional concerto, a dialogue is set up between soloist and orchestra, however in this case much of the soloist’s part is improvised. The score prescribes very clearly exactly when the saxophone plays, but during the improvised sections, what is played is largely left to them. Rhythmic and harmonic guidelines are indicated, as well as the occasional description of mood or feel. Generally however, I am relying on the music of the orchestra itself to provide the inspiration for the improvising, knowing that each particular mood in the orchestra has the possibility of inspiring myriad improvised musical responses from the saxophone. This is a musical exploration through the unknown, with each performance unique, acknowledging that every journey we take is one of high stakes, but also infinite possibility. To leave so much up to the soloist requires a deep musical compatibility and trust — a special relationship between composer and performer. Joe’s tremendous artistry and wide-open musical mind was a guiding light during the writing of this piece, allowing me to compose with freedom, and with the confidence that he would bring exceptional beauty, raw power, sensitivity, and heightened emotion to his part.

Program Note by Douglas J. Cuomo (2022) and David B. Levy (2023)

(Achille-)Claude Debussy was born August 22, 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (near Paris) and died in Paris on March 25, 1918. His magnificent seascape, La mer , was composed between 1903-05. Its first performance took place in Paris at the Concerts Lamoureux on October 15, 1905 under the direction of Camille Chevillard. The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (cymbals and tam-tam), 2 harps, and strings.

As is the case with his Nocturnes (1893-99), La mer (“The Sea,” 1903-05) is a triptych. Unlike the former work, however, La mer’s three movements must be performed together in order retain their unity (Nuages, Fêtes, and Sirènes, the movements that comprise Nocturnes, could be–and often are–performed separately). La mer represents Debussy at his symphonic best, a fact that garnered criticism from both his friends and enemies. Debussy’s supporters sensed that he was moving too far from the abstract qualities of symbolism, such as is found in his Prelude to “The Afternoon of a faun” of 1894, in favor of a too “traditional” approach to composition. His detractors, on the other hand, argued that he did not go far enough, wishing La mer to be a full-fledged symphony. While some of the criticism toward La mer may have been driven by animosities deriving from scandals surrounding Debussy’s personal life (he had left his wife, Lily, for Emma Bardac, the wife of a prominent Parisian banker), the work obviously has triumphed over the objections of its earliest critics.

Debussy’s love of the sea was deeply felt, and in a letter to his publisher Jacques Durand, he reveals that under other circumstances he might have pursued a maritime career. In another letter he identifies the sea as “the thing in nature which best puts you in your place.” The original title for the first and third sketches were, respectively, “Mer belle aux iles sanguinaires” and “Le vent fait danser la mer” (“The Beautiful Sea with Happy Islands” and “The Wind Makes the Sea Dance”). The second sketch, “Jeux des vagues” (“Games of the Waves”) retained its original title in the final draft of the piece.

I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer (From Dawn to Noon on the Sea). The immense power of the sea, yet to be unleashed, is portrayed in a slow introduction. The first important theme is played by English horn and trumpet. As dawn rises, the movement of the sea becomes more active, as one feels (and sees in the bow movements of the violins) an undulating, rocking motion. Divided cellos announce the fully wakened forces of nature at work. The end of the sketch is marked by a majestic theme in the horns–the “chorale of the depths.”

II. Jeux des vagues (Games of the Waves). Debussy’s superb skills as an orchestrator come to the fore in this scherzo filled with brilliant effects and delicacy. The “games” range from the teasing to the powerfully rough and tumble variety.

III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea). At first it seems as though the winds adumbrate an approaching storm. A transformation of a figure from the first movement, a short note followed by a longer one, takes on a plaintive air described by some as akin to a siren’s song. This figure dominates the mood of the entire movement. Cellos and bassoons give an animated statement of the first theme from the opening sketch, which now grows more vehement. This yields eventually to a subtle invocation of the “chorale,” but the plaintive wail of the siren’s song returns in colorful guise, framed by a wonderful high note (harmonic) in the violins. A majestic sounding of the “chorale” in the full brass denotes the powerful coda–a peroration in praise of the sea, which, as Debussy says, has shown us “all her moods.”

Notes by David B. Levy © 2006/2022

George Frideric Handel: Messiah, HWV 56

George Frideric Handel was born on February 23, 1685, in Halle (Germany), and died on April 14, 1759, in London. He was buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner, an honor rarely afforded one who was not born in Britain. His English oratorio, Messiah , is far and away his best known and most beloved work. It takes its place among Handel’s works with several other oratorios, sacred and secular choral works, operas in Italian and English, and a large repertory of instrumental works that include solo keyboard music, chamber works, concertos for organ, concerti grossi, and orchestral suites. The best known of the latter category are the three suites that comprise the Water Music of 1717. Messiah, whose text was assembled from Charles Jennens’ excerpts from the Old and New Testament, was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742, as a charity concert. Its London debut took place in March of 1743. It is scored for vocal soloists, chorus, and an orchestra comprising two oboes, bassoon, two trumpets, timpani, strings, and basso continuo instruments (harpsichord and organ).

The history of Western music has produced a few monuments that tower above all other works in the imaginations of audiences. Among these we may count the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (his setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy), Bach’s Mass in B minor (less frequently performed on this side of the Atlantic than it deserves), and Handel’s Messiah . Messiah is universally recognized as a sacred music treasure and encompasses carefully selected and arranged passages from the Old Testament prophets (especially Isaiah) and the New Testament, which lays out a carefully crafted narrative that describes the advent of Jesus Christ, ending with his entry into Jerusalem (Part I), his rejection, death, resurrection, ascension, triumphant spread of the Gospel (Part II, culminating in the famous “Hallelujah” chorus), and ending with the promise of resurrection and eternal life to those who follow him (Part III)

Performances of Messiah during the Advent and Christmas seasons have become the norm, even though only Part I is applicable to that season (without the “Hallelujah” chorus). Handel’s decision to compose Messiah (and, indeed, all his other oratorios) was linked to the Lenten season, when opera houses were forced to shut their doors. Handel, ever the entrepreneur, realized that the application of operatic techniques to sacred topics would prove commercially viable during Lent. Because the performance of oratorios does not entail the cost of staging, sets, and costumes, they were considerably less expensive to produce than opera.

Messiah stands outside the norm for oratorios in three respects: Firstly, it comprises musical settings of direct citations from the 1611 Authorized Version of the English Bible, as well as passages derived from the Book of Common Prayer instead of taking its text from an opera-like libretto. Secondly, its theme of Christ’s role as the Messiah foretold in Hebrew prophecy deviates from the telling of stories about the Exodus from Egypt or heroes found in the Old Testament and other writings. But what truly distinguishes Messiah from all other oratorios is the sustained high level of its music.

Handel, through his melodic genius and experience as the composer of operas, was a master of expressive dramatic composition. Virtually every aria and duet in Messiah is a masterpiece unto itself. But what attracts audiences to Messiah even more, is the mastery displayed in the expression and humanity poured into every note of Handel’s magnificent choruses. Less densely imitative in texture than the choral works of Bach, Handel’s choruses are sufficiently approachable by amateur choirs to make them favorites of choral groups around the world. By the time he composed Messiah , Handel had fully mastered setting English words to music. And what splendid and inspiring settings they are! No wonder an English performance of the work in 1859 featured a chorus of 2,765 voices!

It was once believed that Handel composed all of Messiah in a blaze of creative fire in merely 24 days. While we now know that there are many sections of Messiah that were “borrowed” from previously composed works (material for the choruses, “His yoke is easy” and “And He shall purify,” for example, were arranged from a 1741 Italian chamber duet, “Quel fior che all’ alba ride”) does not detract one bit from the dramatic impact of this skillfully constructed masterpiece. Neither should Handel’s practical revisions of the original Dublin version for performance in London diminish our enjoyment at all. As Handel himself wrote upon completing the “Hallelujah” chorus on September 6, 1741, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God himself.” Audiences clearly still agree.

Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2007

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Concerto no. 2 in C Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 18

Sergei Vassilevich Rachmaninoff was born in Oneg, Novgorod on March 20/April 1, 1873 and died in Beverly Hills, CA on March 28, 1943*. Famed as both pianist and composer, Rachmaninoff left Russia after the Revolution of 1917, eventually taking up residence in the United States. His Piano Concerto no. 2 was composed in 1900-01, and received the first performance of its last two movements in Moscow on December 2/15, 1900 in Moscow. The first performance of the entire piece took place on October 27/November 9, 1901*. On both occasions the composer himself was the soloist, with Alexander Siloti conducting the Moscow Philharmonic. The Winston-Salem Symphony’s most recent performance of this concerto was in November 2019 with pianist Alexander Kobrin, Martin West conducting. The Concerto no. 2 is scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.

*NB: The variation of dates reflects the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

The Russian-born pianist and composer Rachmaninoff falls into the tradition of the great performer-composers of the Romantic style that included figures such as Niccolò Paganini and Franz Liszt. Like his great predecessors at their best, his music avoids the self-indulgent kind of virtuosity-for-its-own-sake practiced by less gifted musicians. His music often is quite sentimental, but his melodic gifts were more than sufficient to prevent it from becoming maudlin. Although Rachmaninoff composed a wide variety of music, he is best known for his works for the piano, and his Concerto no. 2 is by far the most frequently performed of the four that he composed. His Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is also a popular favorite.

After the failure of his First Symphony in St. Petersburg, Rachmaninoff recorded in his Recollections that he lost all hope for any future success. In 1900 he sought psychiatric assistance from Dr. Nikolai Dahl, who, according to the composer, hypnotically persuaded him to continue work on a new piano concerto. Dr. Dahl’s positive approach seems to have worked and he became the recipient of the dedication of the Piano Concerto no. 2. The work received its first performance in 1901 in Moscow, and it was greeted with both critical and popular acclaim.

The concerto is in three broad movements. The first of these, Allegro moderato, begins quietly with chords solemnly played by the unaccompanied soloist. These grow in intensity, ushering in the lush first theme in the strings. A lyrical second theme emerges from the soloist, followed by a proper development section and a stirring recapitulation in martial style. The Adagio sostenuto is a movement of great beauty and tunefulness, whose serenity is only briefly interrupted by an animated middle section that calls for considerable dexterity. The last movement is marked Allegro scherzando and plays dramatically between the major and minor mode. As was the case in the first movement, the finale’s second subject is highly lyrical. Following the lead of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1, which may have served as a model for this piece, Rachmaninoff demarcates the climax of the movement with a tutti statement of the lyrical theme which lends a triumphant and stirring conclusion to this late romantic masterpiece.

Program Note by David B. Levy © 2013/2019/2022

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Op. 57

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was born in Saint Petersburg on September 12, 1906. He died in Moscow on August 9, 1975. He was one of the Soviet Union’s greatest composers. Although he composed in a wide variety of genres, including film scores, but is best known for his fifteen symphonies, which are among the finest examples of its kind from the mid-twentieth century. His Fifth Symphony was first performed in Leningrad (now, once again, St. Petersburg) on November 21, 1937. Its success was unequivocal and it remains of the landmark compositions of this century. It is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, bells, xylophone), 2 harps, piano, celesta, and strings. The work was last performed by the Winston-Salem Symphony in the 2016/2017 season under the baton of Maestro Robert Moody.

Of Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies, the Fifth Symphony is his most popular and frequently performed work. A pejorative overtone creeps in, however, when one tries to define the word “popular” by seeking its opposite, such as when “popular” music (e.g., Rock, Hip-hop, or Traditional) is contrasted with “art” music (Symphonies, chamber music, Opera).   How many of us, for example, have at some time or other characterized some “popular” music as “coarse, primitive, [or] vulgar”? These, however, are the precise words that appeared in a January 1936 article in Pravda entitled “Muddle Instead of Music,” an article (possibly authored by Joseph Stalin himself) that denounced Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and ballet, The Limpid Stream . Thus began one of the saddest episodes in twentieth-century music history—the official exile of one of the Soviet Union’s most gifted talents. Those who dared to stand by Shostakovich, either personally or artistically, did so at grave risk to their own career, or even life.  

The irony, however, was yet to come. Shostakovich sought to deal with Stalin’s rebuke through continued work on new compositions. His immense Fourth Symphony was written over the course of the subsequent months of 1936, but the work was withdrawn under suspicious circumstances shortly before its scheduled premiere in April.   The Fifth Symphony, composed during the next year, enjoyed a much happier fate. One journalist dubbed the new symphony as “a Soviet artist’s practical, creative reply to just criticism,” a subtitle that was used for the first time at the Moscow premiere in 1938. Shostakovich, typically, neither endorsed nor renounced the title.

But did the Fifth Symphony truly represent the rehabilitative effort of a man who had fallen from the good graces of a repressive regime? Evidence that has recently surfaced in two books—Solomon Volkov’s Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (London, 1979) and Elizabeth Wilson’s Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (Princeton, 1994)—paints a rather different portrait. Here we discover a composer who at first believed that his career lay in ruins. His strategy became the maintenance in public of humility and submission. In private, by contrast, Shostakovich set himself on a course of defiant resistance to Stalinist repression by encoding private warnings and references into his scores. Purely instrumental music, after all, has one advantage over works for the stage; censors, who for the most part are musical illiterates, have a harder time applying their political standards. One may recall here how, one hundred years earlier, the crafty Robert Schumann had slipped the forbidden “Marseilles” past the Viennese censors in his Faschingsschwank aus Wien .

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony owes, as is the case with much of his other music, a debt of gratitude to the color and sardonic wit found in the music of Gustav Mahler.   The powerful opening Moderato begins with a jagged figure treated imitatively in the strings. This paves the way for music of a haunting lyricism. After the first climax, a broad song emerges over a throbbing accompanying figure in dactyls. The gentle pulsation turns outright threatening with the introduction of the percussive sound of the piano and a quickening of speed. The music becomes increasingly frenetic, reaching shattering climaxes before returning to its majestic opening speed and demeanor. It ends shrouded in mystery as the celesta plays its haunting chromatic scales.

The second movement, Allegretto , is a saucy scherzo that dresses itself as a kind of sardonic waltz. Its cheeky character is highlighted by the color of the soprano clarinet and solo violin. The high spirit of this movement yields to the dramatic poignancy of the ensuing Largo . This movement begins soulfully in the divided strings. The highest violins soon introduce a new theme based upon a repeated-note figure. An ethereal duet for flutes over an undulating harp ostinato accompaniment follows. Later, the solo oboe introduces yet another haunting tune. A climax of terrific intensity is achieved based upon the high violin theme, but the tension finally breaks. The movement ends with the oboe theme, now played by celesta and harp (in bell-like harmonics), melting into a more optimistic major chord in the hushed strings.

The finale, Allegro non troppo , is famous for its rousing opening theme, played by trumpets, trombones, and tuba over the pounding kettledrums. This theme may have pleased Shostakovich’s socialist-realist critics, but they would have been less enthusiastic if they knew that its opening notes were derived from the first song, “Rebirth,” from the composer’s Four Pushkin Romances . Even more telling is a later theme in the movement bearing material that Shostakovich had set to the following words: “Thus delusions fall off/ My tormented soul/ And it reveals to me visions/ Of my former pure days.”   A tumult of new themes follows, some of which are evocative of themes heard earlier in the symphony. A slowly oscillating ostinato in the violins takes over, leading to one of the real strokes of genius in the movement—the slow, soft reintroduction of the opening martial theme. The movement ends in a dignified blaze of glory as this theme arrives at its apotheosis in the resplendent brass. Perhaps this is what Shostakovich had in mind when he spoke of his Fifth Symphony as “the stabilization of a personality.” Few works can match these concluding pages for depicting the sheer triumph of the human spirit over adversity.

Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2004/2016

Jared Miller: Luster

Jared Miller was born in Los Angeles in 1988. Shortly thereafter his family moved to Burnaby, British Columbia. He pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia. He later pursued a Master of Arts and Doctorate at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he studied musical composition with Samuel Adler and John Corigliano. In 2014 he became the composer-in-residence at the Victoria (BC) Symphony, a position he held for three years. He taught composition and music theory at Dalhousie University in Halifax before taking an appointment at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2022. According to his website, Miller has won numerous awards for composition that include a 2012 ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the 2011/12 Juilliard Orchestra Competition, three SOCAN awards for young composers (2011, 2015 and 2019) and SOCAN’s Jan V. Matejcek Award for Excellence in New Classical Composition in 2020. His Luster is the result of a commission for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble that gave the work its world premiere on June 15, 2018 with the DSO under the direction of Robert Spano.

Jared Miller kindly provided the following comments about Luster :

“When I received this commission to write for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, I immediately knew that I wanted to pay homage to the city’s vibrant musical past. After all, in addition to the DSO’s world-class music making under Leonard Slatkin over the past decade, Detroit is known for its invention and/or cultivation of many popular music genres including Motown, rap, and rock music. Upon reading more on the musical history of Detroit, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of my favorite musical genres – techno music – was also invented in Detroit. The sound-world of  Luster  is inspired by the thumping bass, instrumental colors, reverberation effects and multi-layered rhythmic texture that is found in techno, house and EDM music from the past 35 years.”

The piece begins with an aura shimmer for two flutes, producing a kind of echo effect, backed by high-pitched harmonics in the strings and wonderful colors emanating from the percussion. The shimmer grows in intensity as it spreads throughout the orchestra. As it reaches its climax, the tempo increases as new ideas are introduced, punctuated by complex rhythmic patterns. The dynamic level drops as the shimmer continues to take on new aspects. The reverberation effects in the flutes returns, along with the string harmonics, rounding out this highly engaging short showpiece for orchestra.

Program Note by David B. Levy/Jared Miller, © 2023

Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, MA on August 25, 1918 and died in New York City on October 14, 1990. His career centered on musical composition and conducting, but he was also a gifted pianist. He preferred to call himself simply “musician.” Bernstein was, as his biography in the  New Grove Dictionary puts it, “the most famous and successful native-born figure in the history of classical music in the USA”. His influence on a generation of musicians was immeasurable. Furthermore, his body of work successfully spanned and connected the sometimes disparate worlds of the concert music and musical theater. His legacy continues through his music, recordings, videos, and many books. His  Symphonic Dances from West Side Story  is the work of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, who in 1961 excerpted and orchestrated music from the popular Broadway musical under the guidance of the composer. The  Symphonic Dances  enjoyed its first performance on February 13, 1961, with Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, in a pension fund gala concert entitled “A Valentine for Leonard Bernstein.” The work is scored  for  3 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets plus E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, large percussion section, harp, piano, celesta, and strings. The last performance of  Symphonic Dances from West Side Story  by the Winston-Salem Symphony took place on the “Romeo and Juliet” concert during the 2005-06 season.

Leonard Bernstein’s enduring musical,  West Side Story,  opened at New York’s Winter Garden Theater on September 26, 1957.  The text by Stephen Sondheim (after A. Laurents) is based on Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet , with the feuding Capulets and Montagues now represented by two rival gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, and the scenario removed from Verona to the streets of Manhattan.  Among the popular tunes from  West Side Story  are “Maria,” “One Hand, One Heart,” “America,” “Tonight,” “I Feel Pretty,” and “Somewhere A Place for Us.”  The show successfully combines jazz, lyricism, Latin-American rhythms, and ballet.

Bernstein had the good fortune to work with the superb choreographer, Jerome Robbins, for  West Side Story .  The two artists had previously worked together in 1944 on  Fancy Free  and again in 1946 on  Facsimile .   On the Town  (1944) and  Wonderful Town  (1952) were earlier musicals by Bernstein that used dancing as a central feature of their style.  The  Symphonic   Dances  from  West Side Story  were excerpted and orchestrated under the composer’s direction in 1961 by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal (who orchestrated the film version of the show), and have since become a regular part of the repertoire of symphony orchestras. Audiences will recognize several musical themes and moments from  West Side Story  in the  Symphonic Dances , including “Somewhere” and a Cha-Cha version of “Maria.” The orchestra gets to shout out the word “Mambo” during one of the dance sequences, and also gets to snap their fingers.

Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2005/2014

Johannes Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, Op. 77

Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833 in Hamburg and died in Vienna on April 3, 1897. One of the dominant composers of the late nineteenth century, Brahms greatly enriched the repertory for piano, organ, chamber music, chorus, and orchestra. His only Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was composed in the summer and early fall of 1878 in one of his favorite locales, Pörtschach am Wörthersee in Carinthia (Austria). Brahms effected minor revisions after its premiere on January 1, 1879 in Leipzig with the composer conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra with Joseph Joachim as soloist. It is scored for solo violin, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Few would deny that the violin concertos of Beethoven and Brahms stand at the pinnacle of the genre. It is also true that Beethoven’s work served as a model for Brahms, resulting in many clear points of contact between the works. Both concertos, for example, use the orchestra extensively, lending a symphonic quality to them. Each work not only explores the virtuosic capabilities of the violin, but also its lyrical side. The first movement of both works follows the classical principle of tutti-solo alternation (a carryover from the Baroque ritornello form) in conjunction with the dialectic of sonata form. Yet, even while clinging to classical forms, both concertos ultimately transcend them. They are not just great violin concertos; they are superb musical compositions. As such, therefore, they tax their performers in both technical prowess and musicality.

Brahms’s Concerto emerged from the master’s highly productive summer of 1878, a period that also produced the Symphony no. 2, the First Sonata for Violin and Piano, and early work on the Second Piano Concerto. The genesis and growth of Brahms’s Violin Concerto owes to the composer’s continuing friendship and professional affiliation with the great violinist, Joseph Joachim. This virtuoso musician, who also was a composer of no small ability, offered much more than merely technical advice to the composer. The Brahms-Joachim correspondence reveals much valuable insight into the concerto’s compositional genesis. One document, for example, shows Joachim dissuading Brahms from his plan to extend the work into a four-movement composition through the addition of a scherzo (Those familiar with Brahms’s Piano Concerto no. 2 will be aware that the composer successfully added such a movement in that work). But Joachim surely was right in his instincts regarding the Violin Concerto. The three-movement design was perfect as it stood.

The magical moments in Brahms’s Violin Concerto are almost too numerous to count, but a few are worth noting. The first comes very near the start of the opening Allegro non troppo, when after a purely diatonic D-major opening paragraph, an unexpected surprise comes in the form of a shudder—a counterstatement that starts in the foreign key of C Major. The first entrance of the solo instrument takes place in a highly charged and dramatic D Minor. Also worthy of mention is the gentle and lyrical reentry of the orchestra after the first movement’s cadenza—one of several instances of the influence of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (a work that was also performed, at Joachim’s insistence, at the premiere). Joachim composed and performed his own cadenza (still used by many violinists) for the first performance of the Brahms. Both the cadenza and Joachim’s superb playing of it, according to a letter from Brahms to a friend, trampled over this poignant moment with immediate applause from the audience.

Speaking of lyricism, it is difficult to imagine a more sublime melody than the F-Major oboe solo that inaugurates the Adagio second movement. Indeed, the scoring for woodwinds throughout this movement is incomparable. This writer, for one, lives for the end of the movement’s introduction, when in an astonishing sequence, the solo flute drops from an F natural in a high register to a low F sharp, followed by a rest before resolving sweetly to a G. The next two measures land the music gently in its final cadence in the home key. This sequence is repeated later in the movement by the solo violin.

The finale is a gypsy-inspired Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace, filled with technical challenges aplenty, as well as metrical subtleties, but never exceeding Brahms’s customary decorum. The movement is rounded out by a piquant and exciting coda, Poco più presto.

Program Note by David B. Levy © 2014

Antonín Dvořák: Carnival Overture, Op. 92

The Czech master Antonin Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, on September 8, 1841; and died in Prague, May 1, 1904. His Carnival Overture (originally entitled “Life”), composed In 1891 is one of his liveliest and most popular short works for orchestra. The work was first performed in Prague on April 28, 1892, just before the composer departed for the United States. It is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.

Dvořák’s symphonies, particularly nos. Seven, Eight, and Nine (“From the New World”), the Cello Concerto, and the orchestrated version of his Slavonic Dances are his most frequently performed symphonic works. To this list may be added the one exception among his five symphonic poems, the Carnival Overture. This work, written in 1891, takes its place in the middle of a trilogy of concert overtures collectively labeled Nature, Life, and Love.

The overture’s title refers to the pre-Lenten season that is celebrated so colorfully in various parts of the world, culminating in Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras). The composer indicated that the Carnival Overture expresses the sentiments of “a lonely, contemplative wanderer reaching at twilight a city where a carnival is in full sway. On every side is heard the clangor of instruments mingled with the shouts of joy and unrestrained hilarity of people giving vent to their feelings in songs and dance tunes.” The lively opening and closing sections flank a more subdued middle part that may be indicative of the “wanderer” and his feelings. But it is the general exuberance of the outer sections, with their brilliant splashes of orchestral color that has endeared this work to audiences.

Note by David B. Levy © July 2005

Lyle Lovett, Graham Nash, Ricky Skaggs among the headliners in Door Community Auditorium 2024 season

F ISH CREEK - Big names, names you should know, a few returning favorites, legendary and rising stars making their local debuts, and a slew of award winners fill the schedule for Door Community Auditorium's 2024 Main Stage season, which was announced Friday morning.

Cari Lewis, the auditorium's executive director, said she's proud of the coming season put together by DCA, even coming after a 2023 season in which the auditorium sold out more shows than it ever had in its 33 years.

"I don’t remember us ever having this many recent Grammy winners in the lineup. This might be a record," Lewis said in a news release for the season. "There’s something for everyone: Comedy, dance, soul, family programming, a little nostalgia, a good amount of harmony and Americana, and some world-class regional talent, too.”

The harmonies start right off the bat as the season opens June 19 with the latest incarnation of 1970s-'80s pop-rock hitmakers Little River Band ("Reminiscing," "Lonesome Loser," "Take it Easy on Me"). Next up is roots-folk duo Watchhouse, who played DCA in 2016 back when they were called Mandolin Orange, on stage June 27 with special guest troubadour Charlie Parr. Closing the month is a concert by progressive bluegrass pioneer, three-time Grammy Award winner and International Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Sam Bush on June 30.

A couple more Grammy winners kick off July at DCA, starting July 2 with Americana guitar phenom Molly Tuttle, who won the 2023 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for "Crooked Tree." She's followed by another Grammy winner (for "Infinity Plus One," 2017's Best Children's Album), family-friendly hip-hop artist 23 Skidoo and The Secret Agency on July 8, before country-blues gospel band The Wood Brothers takes the stage July 14.

Back at DCA by popular demand is Lyle Lovett and His Large Band for a July 20 date. This will mark the fourth time the alt-country icon and four-time Grammy winner has played DCA with his band, with the previous shows in 2015, '16 and '19 all quickly selling out.

Then for the last week of July, JJ Grey and Mofro bring their Southern soul-rock July 24; a triple bill of The Drifters, The Platters and Cornell Gunter’s Coasters sing their early rock-soul hits of the 1950s and '60s in a July 28 show; and acclaimed songwriters Eilen Jewell and Chris Smither are on stage July 30.

August brings three shows that vary widely in style, beginning with 15-time Grammy-winning mandolin picker Ricky Skaggs with his band Kentucky Thunder returning for an Aug. 2 date; he'd previously played there in 2017. Following on Aug. 4 is SistaStrings, a violin/cello duo of sisters who are natives of Milwaukee, now based in Nashville, blending R&B, gospel and classical sounds. Then comes Graham Nash, a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer as a member of The Hollies and Crosby, Stills and Nash, for an Aug. 18 show.

September opens with a mystery show, an alternative/indie/reggae concert by a yet-to-be-announced act Sept. 7. Then comes another returning act, the Alash Tuvan Ensemble, which brought its throat singing to DCA in 2016 and is back for a Sept. 13 concert, followed by Americana singer-songwriter Angel Olsen on Sept. 20.

A unique dance program is on stage Sept. 22 with Jumaane Taylor’s “Supreme Love,” tap dance set to the offbeat rhythms of hard bop music, especially John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," in a co-production with the Door Kinetic Arts Festival. Neo-soul iconoclast Meshell Ndegeocello performs Sept. 29 and recent U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, the first Indigenous person to serve in that post, plays with her band Oct. 4.

Late October sees the return of DCA's Blues, Roots & Hoots Festival. The second annual festival with four straight nights of acts features a jazz-and-tap show in “Some Enchanted Evening” Oct. 24; improvisational comedy Oct. 25 from 10-season "Saturday Night Live" member and Emmy Award winner Tim Meadows, Matt Walsh and Friends (Oct. 25), an encore performance Oct. 26 of last year's tribute concert “Door County and Memphis Voices: Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Beyond”; and folk-jazz by Madeleine Peyroux on Oct. 27.

The auditorium has two holiday-time shows on the schedule. The Nov. 30 show "A Ketchup Christmas" has local band Ketchup covering the album “In the Christmas Spirit” by legendary R&B band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Then, Colin Welford, a musician, composer and musical director of shows from Broadway to Northern Sky Theater, is joined by some musical friends for “Songs that Sleigh” Dec. 14.

A handful of shows also are on for early 2025, with Afro-jazz circus Cirque Kalabanté on Jan. 26, Spanish-English kids’ duo 123 Andrés on Feb. 28 and 23 Skidoo & The Secret Agency returning from their July gig for an April 4 show.

In addition to the Main Stage shows, DCA plays host to the classical music of the Peninsula Music Festival season over the first three weeks of August as well as a variety of community concerts throughout the season.

Tickets go on sale to the general public May 14, with presales for DCA VIPs beginning May 7. Season subscriptions with discounts are available for those who plan to attend multiple shows. The auditorium also continues to seek sponsors and volunteers for the season.

Door Community Auditorium is at 3926 State 42, Fish Creek. For tickets or more information on shows, subscriptions, volunteering or becoming a DCA VIP, go to the DCA box office, 3926 State 42, Fish Creek; call 920-868-2728; or visit dcauditorium.org.

2024 Main Stage season

• June 19 : 1970s-80s pop-rock hitmakers Little River Band
• June 27 : Roots-folk duo Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange) with special guest Charlie Parr
• June 30 : International Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Sam Bush
• July 2 : Guitar phenom Molly Tuttle
• July 8 : Family-friendly hip-hop with 23 Skidoo and The Secret Agency
• July 14 : Country-blues gospel with The Wood Brothers
• July 20 : Alt-country icon Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
• July 24 : Southern soul-rock with JJ Grey and Mofro
• July 28 : 1950s-'60s rock-soul hits with The Drifters, The Platters, and Cornell Gunter’s Coasters
• July 30 : Acclaimed songwriters Eilen Jewell and Chris Smither
• Aug. 2 : Legendary mandolin picker Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder
• Aug. 4 : Classical/R&B string duo SistaStrings
• Aug. 18 : Legendary rocker Graham Nash
• Sept. 7 : Alternative/indie/reggae concert with a yet-to-be-announced performer
• Sept. 13 : Throat singing with the Alash Tuvan Ensemble
• Sept. 20 : Americana songwriter Angel Olsen
• Sept. 22 : Jumaane Taylor’s “Supreme Love,” a bop jazz/tap dance performance
• Sept. 29 : Neo-soul pioneer Meshell Ndegeocello
• Oct. 4 : Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and her band
• Oct. 24 : Jazz and tap in “Some Enchanted Evening," part of the second annual Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival
• Oct. 25 : Improv comedy with Tim Meadows, Matt Walsh and Friends, part of the second annual Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival
• Oct. 26 : Encore performance of “Door County and Memphis Voices: Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Beyond,” part of the second annual Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival
• Oct. 27 : Folk-jazz chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux, part of the second annual Blues, Roots, & Hoots Festival
• Nov. 30 : A Ketchup Christmas, with local band band Ketchup performing Booker T. & the M.G.’s’ “In the Christmas Spirit”
• Dec. 14 : “Songs that Sleigh” with composer/musical director Colin Welford and Friends
• Jan. 26 : Afro-jazz circus Cirque Kalabanté
• Feb. 28 : Spanish-English kids’ duo 123 Andrés
• April 4 : Family-friendly hip-hop with 23 Skidoo and The Secret Agency

C ontact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or  [email protected].

MORE: Northern Door County home that houses J-1 visa student workers is damaged by fire

MORE:   Is Door County one of the best summer travel destinations in the U.S.? Voters will decide

MORE:   Door County's 'goats on the roof' Swedish restaurant makes plans for its 75th anniversary

FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS:  Check out our website

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Lyle Lovett, Graham Nash, Ricky Skaggs among the headliners in Door Community Auditorium 2024 season

• Preplanned tours
• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro Tour is included in most guided tours’ itineraries. Opened in 1935, under Stalin’s regime, the metro was not only meant to solve transport problems, but also was hailed as “a people’s palace”. Every station you will see during your Moscow metro tour looks like a palace room. There are bright paintings, mosaics, stained glass, bronze statues… Our Moscow metro tour includes the most impressive stations best architects and designers worked at - Ploshchad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya, Kievskaya, Novoslobodskaya and some others.

What is the kremlin in russia?

The guide will not only help you navigate the metro, but will also provide you with fascinating background tales for the images you see and a history of each station.

And there some stories to be told during the Moscow metro tour! The deepest station - Park Pobedy - is 84 metres under the ground with the world longest escalator of 140 meters. Parts of the so-called Metro-2, a secret strategic system of underground tunnels, was used for its construction.

During the Second World War the metro itself became a strategic asset: it was turned into the city's biggest bomb-shelter and one of the stations even became a library. 217 children were born here in 1941-1942! The metro is the most effective means of transport in the capital.

There are almost 200 stations 196 at the moment and trains run every 90 seconds! The guide of your Moscow metro tour can explain to you how to buy tickets and find your way if you plan to get around by yourself.

Moscow Metro Tour

• Page active

Description

Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

Write your review

LATEST NEWS

Ricky Skaggs Remembers Former Kentucky Thunder Band Member, Jim Mills

May 6, 2024

"On May 3, my friend and former Kentucky Thunder band member, Jim Mills, passed away. He was 57 years old. Our hearts are broken for Jimmy’s wife, Kim. Please keep her in your prayers. Of course we’re all brokenhearted, because we loved him and will certainly miss his big smile!” --Ricky Skaggs

J. D. Crowe & the New South (ROU 0044) selected by the Library of Congress

Apr 24, 2024

“ROU 0044 was first released in 1975, and served as the bluegrass public’s first experience of Crowe’s new band, and for many, their first introduction to the musical genius of Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, and Jerry Douglas, all very young men at that time. The album also introduced – or reintroduced – bluegrass lovers to a series of songs that are now considered standards…” Read the whole story at:...

Ricky Skaggs Congratulates the 2024 Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees

Mar 18, 2024

“I was so happy to hear that my friends John Anderson, James Burton and our dear Toby Keith are being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. All three of these mighty men have made an enormous impact on country music. The Hall of Fame couldn’t have made a better choice.” --Ricky Skaggs

RICKY SKAGGS HELPS TO UNVEIL Bluegrass Music POSTAL STAMP

OWENSBORO, Ky., March 15, 2024 -- That high lonesome sound was celebrated here today with the dedication of the Bluegrass Forever stamp at the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum. Bluegrass is a singularly American music style, born in the mid-20th century. It defies time, drawing inspiration from the past while also openly embracing innovation. "Like Bluegrass, the Postal Service finds inspiration in our nation's history — which is why we are so proud of the role we play in portraying the...

Ricky Skaggs Remembers Country Music’s Toby Keith

Feb 6, 2024

“I was saddened to hear of Toby Keith’s passing. He really was one of the good guys. He helped a lot of people get started in the business. He loved God, he loved his family, and he was a true Patriot--he loved America. A friend to so many, including myself! Rest dear brother, you’re home at last!” --Ricky Skaggs

New Interview with Ricky Skaggs – Listening Link Here

Jan 24, 2024

He has won 15 GRAMMY Awards, been named to more Halls of Fame that you can imagine, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he is still at it, singing and pickin' and sharing the love of Jesus. Ricky Skaggs is without a doubt one of the best instrumentalists in the world, on several instruments, and his voice is heard on some of the most memorable recordings. He talks about his upcoming visit to the Orange Blossom Opry in Weirsdale, Florida. Listening Link:...

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder bring bluegrass hits, history to Birchmere – Show Review

Jan 19, 2024

Bluegrass and country music legend Ricky Skaggs brought his band Kentucky Thunder with him for the first of two intimate shows at Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia on Friday night (Jan 5th). Go here for the article from The Music Universe - https://themusicuniverse.com/ricky-skaggs-kentucky-thunder-bring-bluegrass-hits-history-birchmere/ Photo Credit: James Todd Miller

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder To Play Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman Auditorium Series This Summer!

Jan 9, 2024

JUST ANNOUNCED: Mark your calendar for July 25 to join Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder at Springer Mountain Farms Bluegrass Nights at the Ryman Auditorium! Season passes are available NOW and allow you to get the best seats in the house before they go on sale to the public. Get tickets: https://bit.ly/41UtFiQ

Happy Birthday Sharon White of The Whites!

Dec 17, 2023

Happy Birthday today to Sharon White, Ricky Skaggs' wife and member of acclaimed music group, The Whites! She brings a ray of Texas sunshine wherever she goes! Happy Birthday Miss Sharon! Photo credit: Russ Carson/Carson Photoworks

Happy Birthday to Mr. Buck White of the Whites!

Dec 13, 2023

Happy Birthday to Buck White today, December 13th! Loved by all who know him, he is the founding musical force behind the acclaimed music group, The Whites. Photo credit: Fan submitted

Ricky Skaggs Remembers His Old Friend and BandMate, Terry BAucom, upon his passing

Dec 8, 2023

"I was saddened to hear of my old friend and fellow Boone Creek bandmate Terry Baucom’s passing. Boone Creek blazed a trail and a new sound in Bluegrass back in the mid 1970’s. The band consisted of Terry, Wes Golding, Jerry Douglas, myself and many bass players, one of which was our friend Vince Gill. We were trying to be somewhat progressive but we all loved tradition so much that we couldn’t stray too far from the fold—but just enough to make the purists mad at us. Terry was originally...

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder Christmas with Special Guests 2023 Tour Dates!

Oct 5, 2023

You know “Christmas Time’s A Coming” when 15-time GRAMMY winner and Country Music Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs and his ace backing band Kentucky Thunder play in their refreshing acoustic style all your favorite Christmas songs in this delightful tour along with a few of their special friends. This heartwarming show features a reason to listen to the season of songs both old and new as Skaggs and his band perform their own perfect blend of tight harmony. Celebrate the beauty and majesty of...

BACK TO NEWS

• 2024  (8)
• 2023  (27)
• 2022  (42)
• 2021  (30)
• 2020  (45)
• 2019  (27)
• 2018  (57)
• 2017  (55)
• 2016  (42)
• 2015  (28)