William Levi Dawson’s under-the-radar Negro Folk Symphony and the very popular Piano Concerto in F by George Gershwin open the season of the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 15 and 16. This program highlighting music of the Americas also includes Conga Del Fuego Nuevo and Danzón No. 2 by contemporary composer Arturo Márquez of Mexico.
Dawson’s symphony is the first work of its nature by an African-American composer incorporating authentic Negro folk melodies in a symphonic form. Leopold Stokowski conducted the premier performance in 1934 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, which was acclaimed for its “imagination, warmth, drama and sumptuous orchestration.” Following a trip to West Africa in 1952, Dawson revised the work with authentic African rhythmic patterns. Stokowski then conducted a recording of the revised work in 1963. That is the version most frequently performed today.
William Levi Dawson was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1899. He ran away from home at the age of 13 to attend the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the only school in the area at that time that would accept African-American students. He financed his education by working on the school’s farm, and was a member of Tuskegee’s band and orchestra. He went on to become a noted choir director, and his arrangements of traditional African-American spirituals remain popular.
Gershwin’s piano concerto is written in the classical form established by Mozart and Beethoven, yet is considered “fresh, exciting, romantic and thoroughly American.” James Dick, known for his passionate sound, is the soloist. His playing melds modern-day energy and technique with an Old-World graciousness. He previously performed with SASO in October, 2012. He has dazzled audiences since his youth when in a single year he won prizes in Moscow, Italy and New York. He also is the founder of the Round Top Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas to nurture and incubate aspiring young musicians.
SASO’s 2016-17 season opens with the two pieces by Márquez. He was born in the Sonoran Desert in the colonial town of Alamos, Mexico, then moved for a time to Los Angeles where he studied violin and other instruments and began to compose. He now lives in Mexico City. Until the early 1990s his music was largely unknown outside his native country. That changed when he was introduced to the world of Latin ballroom dancing. The movement and rhythms led him to compose a series of pulsating Danzónes, a fusion of dance music from Cuba and the Veracruz region of Mexico. His Danzón No. 2 is so popular it is often called the second national anthem of Mexico.
Tickets are on sale now for two performances:
- The Saturday Oct. 15 concert is at 7:30 p.m. in the DesertView Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Dr. in SaddleBrooke. Season tickets are still available for $92, a savings of $23. Individual tickets are $24 in advance or $25 at the door and can be purchased by visiting http://tickets.saddlebrooketwo.com or calling 825-2818.
- The Sunday Oct. 16 concert is at 3 p.m. in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 7575 N. Paseo del Norte. Season tickets are $90, a savings of $25. Individual tickets are $23 in advance or at the door. Tickets are complimentary for ages 17 and younger.
Order online at www.sasomusic.org or call 308-6226.
Philanthropist and musician Dorothy Vanek is the SASO season sponsor for the 10th consecutive year. She also underwrote SASO’s first professional CD – Celebration! – featuring the compositions of six Tucson composers. Last spring she underwrote SASO’s second pending CD of contemporary music featuring viola concertos by Amanda Harberg and Max Wolpert with internationally acclaimed soloist Brett Deubner.
SASO’s music acquisition this season is sponsored by the Arizona Lottery. Sponsors for the SaddleBrooke concert are Tom & Carolyn Cochran, and the sponsor for the St. Andrew’s concert is Patricia Linder.
The SASO season offers a juxtaposition of composers spanning nine countries and three centuries. This is the intriguing and wide-ranging programing that SASO audiences have come to expect from Music Director Linus Lerner. Every concert entices.
Two rarely performed works featured this season are Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto and Fauré’s Requiem with vocal soloists and chorus. Three guest artists will debut with SASO this season: Carol Wincenc playing Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, the single-name saxophonist Ashu performing the Glazunov along with tangos by Argentina’s Piazzolla, and young Russian conductor Anton Shaburov who closes the season with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7. Other powerhouse symphonic works in the SASO season are Beethoven’s Fifth and Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances. Two popular SASO soloists return for encore performances – Edwin E. Soo Kim for Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Melanie Chae for Schumann’s Piano Concerto.
SASO presents its five-concert series in SaddleBrooke (north of the town of Catalina) and in northwest Tucson. Two of the programs also will be repeated in Green Valley. For details call 308-6226 or visit www.sasomusic.org.
The charismatic Lerner will conduct four of the five programs. He’s led SASO since 2008 in local performances plus two tours of China, three trips to Oaxaca, Mexico and one to Brazil. Most recently SASO musicians traveled with him to participate in the inaugural San Luis Potosí Opera Festival in Mexico.
Lerner conducts chamber groups, orchestras, operas and choirs around the globe, traveling throughout North and South America, Europe, Eastern Europe, Israel, South Korea, China and Australia. Through these travels he meets exceptional artists from many cultures and introduces them to SASO audiences – adding an international mystique to the concerts performed here in Southern Arizona.
SASO is a vital community resource that unites performers and audiences through a passion for music. Founded in 1979, this orchestra presents world premieres, seldom-performed treasures and classical favorites. For more information call 308-6226 or visit www.sasomusic.org.