Nashville Symphony | Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor | Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

PROGRAM

Florence Price, arr. Still: Dances in the Canebrakes
George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F
William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin’s orchestral music defined the American sound, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins us for our centennial celebration of Rhapsody in Blue plus his Piano Concerto in F. Gershwin is complemented by Florence Price and William Dawson, whose compositions stemmed from the Black American Experience. At its 1934 Carnegie Hall premiere, Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, based on spirituals and emphatically symphonic, brought audiences to their feet. And Price’s Dances in the Canebrakes is drawn from Black folk songs and dances of the 1920s and ‘30s.