CLASSICS: FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN MUSIC: The Literary Influence

Literature has ever laid its influence on composers.

The words of essayist, novelist, and civil rights activist James Baldwin are brought to life in the deeply moving demand for justice by the Emmy-award-winning composer Joel Thompson. Best known for his largest work to date, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, Thompson is finding new listeners around the world. Leonard Bernstein, influenced by poet W. H. Auden’s work of the same title, explored existentialism in the modern world. Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 explores the seven ages of Man with the piano soloist as the protagonist.  In addition, one of the new Creator Corps members will be tasked with writing a new work inspired by literature to premiere at this concert.

Sebastian Chang‘s first major performance as a piano soloist was in his own composition Concertino for Piano and Orchestra with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at the age of 9. Sebastian obtained his B.M. in Composition from the Curtis Institute of Music & an M.M. in Composition from the University of Southern California. Chang is a regular collaborator with the Louisville Orchestra as an orchestral pianist and for many special events.

Concert Program:

Joel THOMPSON: To Awaken the Sleeper
A World Premiere piece commissioned from the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps
Leonard BERNSTEIN:  Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety”

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Sebastian Chang, piano