The Great Unknown

ABOUT:

Jump into the great unknown as the SoNA season continues, and discover sounds that you may have never heard before! Great music deserves to be heard, and in this next concert SoNA shines a light on a rarely heard masterpiece, performed alongside two other highly celebrated works.

Kick off 2024 with a program of notable pieces by a trio of great American composers who were all working in the 1930’s. The centerpiece of The Great Unknown is An American in Paris by the illustrious George Gershwin, who once referred to it as “humorous, light, and jolly, a series of impressions musically expressed … nothing solemn about it.”

The evening’s program will also feature Samuel Barber’s unforgettable Symphony No. 1 and William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony – a timeless yet rarely heard work based on themes from Black spirituals, which originally premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1934.

The now world-famous Samuel Barber — who also wrote the iconic Adagio for Strings — penned his first symphony in 1936. At the time, Barber was already a widely admired and well-supported young composer, having just graduated from one of the most prestigious conservatories in the world. William Dawson wrote his Negro Folk Symphony just two years earlier in 1934, at the age of 35, but without any of those privileged advantages – yet it is just as commanding, and was tragically the only symphony he ever wrote.

PLEASE NOTE — Due to a family emergency of the featured soloist originally scheduled to perform the world premiere of Aldo López-Gavilán‘s “Oceans to Cross,” that portion of the evening’s program has now been replaced with George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” We are working to reschedule the world premiere of “Oceans to Cross” at a later date, likely as part of the 2024-25 Season to be announced later this year.