America in Weimar: On the Margins at Carneige Hall: Zankel Hall

Through music spanning the 1920s to today, the American Composers Orchestra (ACO) explores the United States’ influence on the Weimar Republic, and, conversely, aspects of the Weimar legacy that resonate now in American culture. ACO performs Antheil’s Jazz Symphony, one of the first significant classical pieces influenced by jazz; short works by Duke Ellington, which caused a sensation during Sam Wooding and the Chocolate Kiddies’ 1925 tour of Berlin and Hamburg; and a new arrangement of “Pirate Jenny” from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. Additional works include a world premiere by Tonia Ko, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall; a world premiere by John Glover and librettist Kelley Rourke, featuring mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams and accordionist Felipe Hostins; and the New York premiere of “Clans” from Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate’s Lowak Shoppala'.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at 7:30 PM in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall.

Performers

American Composers Orchestra
Rei Hotoda, Conductor and Piano
Chrystal E. Williams, Mezzo-Soprano
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Narrator and Vocals
Felipe Hostins, Accordion
Alexandra Cuesta, Video Design

Program

ANTHEIL Jazz Symphony

ELLINGTON "Sophisticated Lady" (arr. M. Gould)

WEILL/BRECHT "Pirate Jenny" from The Threepenny Opera (arr. Felipe Hostins; World Premiere)

JOHN GLOVER / KELLEY ROURKE Right Now (World Premiere)

ELLINGTON "Solitude" (arr. M. Gould)

TONIA KO Her Land, Expanded (World Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

JEROD IMPICHCHAACHAAHA' TATE "Clans" from Lowak Shoppala' (NY Premire)

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately 90 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.

View Program Notes

Mix and Mingle

Join us for a free drink at a post-concert reception in Zankel Hall’s Parterre Bar.

This performance is funded in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc.

Support for the Fall of the Weimar Republic festival is provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Hearst Foundations.

This Concert in Context

The 1920s bore witness to an explosion of interest in jazz, especially in Germany where many listeners and composers alike could not get enough of America’s latest cultural export. The experimentation and improvisation inherent to the genre lent itself all too well to a cultural mood of Weimar Germany that prized modernist innovation and iconoclasm. Determined to make a name for himself as a modernist composer par excellence, American George Antheil could think of no better place to settle than Berlin and spent a year in the German capital in 1922. Antheil’s Jazz Symphony would appear three years later and receive its world premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1927.

Musical influences ran in both directions. When Kurt Weill fled Germany upon the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 and settled in New York City, he immediately threw himself into working within American idioms, such as musical theater. His song “My Ship” from the musical Lady in the Dark dates from the beginning of 1941, at a time when America remained firmly on the sidelines of the Second World War unfolding in Europe and Asia. Musical groups like the internationally renowned Comedian Harmonists performed countless works by American jazz composers like Duke Ellington, whose standards “Sophisticated Lady” and “Solitude” appeared in 1932 and 1934, respectively.

—Brendan Fay, author of Classical Music in Weimar Germany

The American Composers Orchestra

First Violins: Michael Roth, Robin Bushman, Dorothy Strahl, Epongue Ekille, Sander Strenger, Chala Yancy

Second Violins: Deborah Wong, Josh Henderson, Edward W. Hardy, Diane Bruce, Laura Oatts

Violas: Liuh-wen Ting, Sandra Robbins, Juliet Hafner, Chrystal Garner

Cello: Eugene Moye, Lanny Paykin, Maureen Hynes

Basses: Mary Javian, Jacqui Danilow

Flutes: Julietta Curenton, Diva Goodfriend Koven

Oboes: Steve Taylor: Toyin Spellman Diaz: Melanie Feld

Clarinets: Patricia Billings, Ben Baron, Ashleé Miller

Bassoons: Alex Davis, Harry Searing

Horns: Stewart Rose, Deryck Clarke

Trumpets: Wayne Dumaine, Gareth Flowers

Trombones: Chris Mcintyre, Michael Clayville, Dave Taylor

Tuba: Ray Stewart

Piano: Chris Oldfather

Harp: Susan Jolles

Timpani: Jonathan Haas

Percussion: Pablo Rieppi, Izzy Butler

Librarian: Manly Romero

Personnel Manager: Jonathan Haas