University Symphony Orchestra

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Kenneth Kiesler, Conductor
Caitlin Lynch, soprano

The University Symphony Orchestra (USO) presents Strum, Sing, and Dance, an All-American concert, featuring the music of 20th Century composers Florence Price, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland, and a relatively new star of the 21st Century, Jessie Montgomery whose words about her piece called Strum could have been written about this entire concert, “Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration.”

In one of the quintessential and most inspiring 20th Century American works for voice and orchestra, Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Samuel Barber’s music evokes the childhood memories described in James Agee’s novel, A Death in the Family. Metropolitan Opera soprano Caitlyn Lynch, SMTD faculty member, is the featured soloist.

Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, started life as Ballet for Martha (Graham). The story and choreography she created were so organically drawn from the simplicity and youthful spirit of the music that the piece has captured the imagination of audiences for generations, whether danced or in concert. Florence Price’s Dances in the Canebrakes is a celebration based on the dancing and singing of slaves after a hard day clearing the canebrakes from the cottonfields.

Join us for this entertaining and uplifting concert of music of America.

This performance will be preceded by a pre-concert conversation about the music and the artists at 7:15.