"Be Glad Then, America"

This concert will feature a lineup of American works and highlight one of the most recognizable quartets in the American orchestral repertoire: Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B minor, Opus 11, with “Adagio for Strings” embedded as the second movement. Barber composed the Adagio at the age of 26 while living in Austria. He was so proud of it that he wrote to a friend: “I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet today—it is a knockout!”  

The program will also include the world première of Kenji Bunch's latest work, the genre-defying son of a Japanese immigrant, as well as works by other influential American classical composers: Arthur Foote was a leading member of the “Boston Six”—composers who moved away from European music styles and characteristics—and Florence Price was the first African-American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra.