Made in America

“Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Commemorating the United States of America’s semiquincentennial, New Texas Sinfonia begins its sixth season with music as American as apple pie. The first half of the program combines echoes of a young nation with European influences of the twentieth century. Written in 1970, Peggy Stuart Coolidge’s Pioneer Dances evokes sounds of a burgeoning republic: capturing westward expansion and the American frontier. Not long after his return from Berlin and Paris, George Antheil composed Dreams for a Parisian ballet choreographed by George Balanchine. It balances folksy and cultivated with exotic and populist, culminating in an engaging suite. 

Alongside works by Florence Price and Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, this celebration of Americana finishes with the masterful playing of award winning violinist Jaewon Wee in Samuel Barber’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 14.

New Texas Sinfonia
Jaewon Wee, violin
Weston Jennings, conductor