Excelsior Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert: Celebrating American Music!

The U.S.A. is celebrating 250 years of independence, and the nation’s music reflects its exuberant, questing spirit. Guest Conductor Teresa Cheung leads a program with all the colors of the American soul.

Morton Gould’s “American Salute” uses the melody “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” for a salute to America’s World War II allies.

Charles Ives’ “Variations on ‘America’” presents that familiar piece in an entirely new way, as only Ives’ imagination could invent.

African-American composers are well-represented on the program. ESO presents W.C. Handy’s swinging “St. Louis Blues,” Florence Price’s soulful Concert Overture No. 2” and William Grant Still’s blues-haunted “Afro-American Symphony.”

ESO’s late Music Director, William Eckfeld, composed “Fanfare for Hackley” for brass choir, in honor of the orchestra’s participation in Diller Hall’s inaugural season.

For more information on the program, you may access Dr. Joshua Berrett’s program notes at www.excelsiorso.org.