Bluegrass Mandolin and Mozart at Western Piedmont Symphony

Western Piedmont Symphony will present MASTERWORKS: SYMPHONY SWINGS on Saturday, May 17, featuring guest artist Jeff Midkiff, composer and mandolinist.

This season, the regional professional orchestra celebrates 60 years of music in the foothills of western North Carolina with more than seventeen concerts featuring music from across the centuries, from Bach to Beethoven, Stravinsky to Ravel, Gershwin to Ellington, and more.

This MASTERWORKS concert celebrates joyous symphonic masterpieces by the comedic opera master Gioachino Rossi, La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Overture, the grandeur and vitality of W.A. Mozart, Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter," and the regional Bluegrass sounds of a new mandolin concert, "From the Blue Ridge" by composer and mandolinist Jeff Midkiff.

"This Masterworks concert sparkles with a mix of familiar and new music by beloved composers such as Mozart and Rossini with a surprising regional sound of symphonic Bluegrass," noted WPS music director Matthew Troy. "Midkiff's "From the Blue Ridge" mandolin concerto showcases his roots in the region and his love for the bluegrass music tradition, with a touch of swing and jazz in the mix."

MASTERWORKS: MOZART AND THE MANDOLIN is sponsored by Century Furniture, Alex Lee, Inc., and the Kenneth K. and Suzanne G. Millholland Endowment Fund. Season media partner is Our State Magazine. Western Piedmont Symphony also receives funding support from Arts Culture Catawba and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.