Ferde Grofe

The Leonia Chamber Musicians Society, Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in the borough of Leonia, New Jersey, announces the launch of their 2018-2019 season.

Maine's Midcoast Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rohan Smith presented a program of American composers, which included the rarely heard Symphony in E Minor by Amy Beach and music from George Chadwick's Symphonic Sketches, together with Ferde Grofe's well-known Grand Canyon Suite at Topsham's Orion Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, January 25, 2014. And while the audience most likely delighted in the last of these compositions, it was the Chadwick and Beach which gave the afternoon its primary merit.

Signaling the start of the social season, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will hold its annual Gala Celebration on Saturday, September 20 at 8:30 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. This year's Gala concert will be led by BSO Music Director Marin Alsop. On the heels of the 200th birthday of the National Anthem, the evening will showcase American music and artists, beginning with a revival of Ferde Grofe's Ode to the Star-Spangled Banner, brought back to the stage for its first public performance in 80 years. The program also features celebrated blind American jazz pianist Marcus Roberts with the Marcus Roberts Trio performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; Center Stage's visionary Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah narrating Copland's Lincoln Portrait; and the Morgan State University Choir lending their voices to selections from the composer's Old American Songs. Please see below for complete program details.

On Sunday, May 18th, Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski joined Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Assembly Member Margaret Markey, and dozens of Queens cultural institutions and community organizations to welcome the public to a free all-day event in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, site of the original 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs.

Following his acclaimed New York Philharmonic debut on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour, jazz pianist Makoto Ozone will join Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in a newly added concert tonight, April 22, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.

On the evening of March 20th 2014, as part of the Diamond Anniversary celebration of the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the Koch Theater, the troupe offered a triple bill that included a recent world premiere and an enduring favorite from 1982. The first two offerings, choreographed in 2012 and 2013 respectively, earned only tepid applause from everyone in the audience including me. The closing piece, on the other hand, rightfully received a nearly thunderous ovation and I was clapping as enthusiastically as the rest of the dancegoers. I only hope that this disparity between the work that was choreographed over three decades ago and those more newly created is not an indication that Taylor, at 83, is no longer turning out the top quality dances that secured him a place in the pantheon of great American modern dance pioneers.

Following his acclaimed New York Philharmonic debut on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour, jazz pianist Makoto Ozone will join Music Director Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in a newly added concert Tuesday, April 22, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. The all-American program will include Bernstein's Candide Overture; Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, featuring Mr. Ozone as soloist; Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; and Gershwin's An American in Paris. The concert will mark Mr. Ozone's U.S. orchestral debut; his appearances with the Philharmonic on the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour marked his first performances with an American orchestra.

Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra open the NJSO's 2012-13 concert season on Friday, September 28, with an Opening Night Celebration featuring sensational pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on a program of Jazz-Age American music. The Orchestra presents works by John Harbison and Ferde Grofe as part of the New Jersey Roots Project, and the concert closes with the work of a master of the Jazz Age-Duke Ellington's Harlem.