Symphony Orchestra

About the Program

Program notes by Mark Bilyeu

Aaron Copland
Lincoln Portrait
Born November 14, 1900, New York City, NY
Died December 2, 1990, North Tarrytown, NY
Composed 1942
Premiered May 14, 1942, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, André Kostelanetz, conductor, William Adams, narrator
15 minutes

In 1941, the conductor André Kostelanetz approached Aaron Copland to write a piece that would be a portrait of an “eminent American,” in hopes of expressing the “magnificent spirit of our country” amidst World War II. Copland was immediately drawn to crafting a work celebrating Walt Whitman, but was persuaded to choose a more globally-recognized political figure to meet the patriotic goals of the commission. And so, Copland crafted his Lincoln Portrait, drawing texts from Lincoln’s State of the Union speech, discourse from the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and from his pivotal Gettysburg Address. 

"The first sketches were made in February, and the portrait finished on 16 April 1942,” wrote Copland, “I worked with musical materials of my own with the exception of two songs of the period: the famous 'Camptown Races' which, when used by Lincoln supporters during his Presidential campaign of 1860, was sung to the words, 'We're bound to work all night, bound to work all day. I'll bet my money on the Lincoln hoss…,' and a ballad that was first published in 1840 under the title 'The Pesky Sarpent,' but it is better known today as 'Springfield Mountain.' In neither case is the treatment a literal one. The tunes are used freely in the manner of my use of cowboy songs in Billy the Kid.

"The composition is roughly divided into three main sections. In the opening section I wanted to suggest something of the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln's personality. Also, near the end of that section, something of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit. The quick middle section briefly sketches in the background of the times he lived. This merges into the concluding section where my sole purpose was to draw a simple but impressive frame about the words of Lincoln himself."

The work was immediately resonant for the Cincinnati audience at the premiere, and made national waves shortly after via a live radio broadcast, featuring Carl Sandburg as the narrator. 
 

John Adams
Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Born February 15, 1947
Composed 1986
Premiered June 13, 1986, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
4 minutes 

American composer John Adams grew up in a house where “Benny Goodman and Mozart were not separated,” and throughout his impressive career, he has exemplified the ideals of eclecticism as perhaps only Americans can. His fanfare “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” was commissioned by Michael Tilson Thomas as a Pittsburgh music festival curtain-raiser in 1986, and has become one of the most frequently-played four minutes of music since. Adams described the work’s inspiration: “Since I had recently taken a ride in a very fancy Italian sportscar driven by a friend of mine, I had not yet recovered from that rather terrifying experience, and it was somewhat still on my brain when I began to think about what kind of fanfare I would write. So, “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” is an evocation of that experience which was both thrilling and also kind of a white-knuckle anxious experience.” Listen for the opening (and incessant) woodblock, which Adams calls “a rhythmic gauntlet through which the orchestra has to pass,” until it suddenly stops; that’s when, Adams says, “the orchestra suddenly feels free, as if it’s the third stage of a rocket that’s finally broken loose of Earth’s gravity.”
 

Valerie Coleman
Life
Born 1970, Louisville, KY
Composed 2026
Premiered July 1, 2026, Lara Downes, pianist, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, New York City, NY
5 minutes

An intimate reflection on the beauty and fragility of life, the shared humanity that connects us, and the potential we hold to protect and cherish one another in intention and action.

Valerie Coleman is a singular force with a career as a performer, teacher, advocate and mentor. In 2024 she was named to the Composition faculty at The Juilliard School, while simultaneously holding positions at the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes School of Music. She is the creator, founder, and former flutist of the acclaimed Imani Winds, an ensemble whose performances and original works have redefined wind chamber music with performances that span the globe. The Boston Globe has described Valerie Coleman as having a “talent for delineating form and emotion with shifts between ingeniously varied instrumental combinations,” and Performance Today named her 2020 Classical Woman Musician of the Year. Her works have garnered awards such as the MAPFund, ASCAP Honors Award, Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program, Herb Alpert Ragdale Residency Award, and nominations from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
 

Arturo O’Farrill
Liberty
Born June 22, 1960, Mexico City, Mexico
Composed 2025
Premiered July 1, 2026, Lara Downes, pianist, American Composers Orchestra, Eric Jacobsen, conductor, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, New York City, NY
10 minutes

A poignant and buoyant work that travels the long road of American history to acknowledge the courageous struggle for freedom, and to celebrate the progress that has been hard-won across generations as we work to realize the promise of liberty as an unalienable right for all Americans.

Hailed by DownBeat as "one of our greatest living pianists, ”6-time Grammy winner, 2-time Latin Grammy winner, and has earned 17 nominations, Arturo O’Farrill stands as a towering figure in contemporary music, renowned for his genre-defying virtuosity, leadership, and unwavering commitment to social justice through music. Born in Mexico City and raised in New York City, O'Farrill's musical journey is deeply rooted in a legacy of innovation and cultural fusion. O'Farrill began his music journey at the Manhattan School of Music Prep Division and received his Master’s degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. In the 1980s, he joined the Carla Bley Big Band, before going on to collaborate with Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Lester Bowie, Steve Turre, Tito Puente, Wynton Marsalis, and more. In 1995, he was named pianist and music director of the Chico O'Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, an ensemble he would go on to lead following his father's death in 2001. In 2024, he was appointed professor of music and Bill Evans Fellow at the New School's Mannes School of Music.
 

Christopher Tin
The Pursuit of Happiness
Born May 21, 1976, Redwood City, CA
Composed 2025
Premiered July 1, 2026, Lara Downes, pianist, American Composers Orchestra, Eric Jacobsen, conductor, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, New York City, NY
20 minutes

A vivacious and audaciously optimistic rhapsody that celebrates the ideals pursued and deserved not just by every American, but by all human beings, regardless of origin or identity.

Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy-winning composer of concert and media music. His music has been performed and premiered in many of the world's most prestigious venues by some of the world’s most esteemed artists including Lang Lang, Lara Downes, Alan Menken, and VOCES8. In 2024 he was invited Francesca Zambello (director) to compose a new ending for Puccini’s Turandot at Washington National Opera alongside librettist Susan Soon He Stanton, and his choral work “Baba Yetu,” a Swahili setting of The Lord’s Prayer stands as the first piece of music written for a video game to ever win a Grammy Award. Tin is signed to an exclusive record deal with Universal under their legendary Decca label, published by Concord and Boosey & Hawkes, and is a Yamaha Artist.

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About the Artists

Lara Downes

Recently honored as Classical Woman of the Year by NPR’s Performance Today, American pianist (and NY Times crossword clue) Lara Downes has been called “a musical ray of hope” by NBC News, “a classical music instigator pushing the music forward with great gusto” by the NY Amsterdam News, and “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten” by The Log Journal. A visionary trailblazer, Lara occupies a unique position of visibility through her dynamic work as a sought-after soloist, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, beloved NPR personality as creator and host of the video series Amplify with Lara Downes, and host of “Evening Music” on Classical California. She has garnered millions of fans spanning diverse communities: her devoted NPR viewers and 100,000+ weekly listeners to her nationally syndicated radio programs intersect with her live concert audiences and her followers on streaming platforms to form a broad and constantly expanding fan base. Her creative collaborations embrace an eclectic range of artists including the Miró Quartet, musical multi-hyphenate Rhiannon Giddens, folk legend Judy Collins, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove, bassist Christian McBride, Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell, authors Jill Lepore, Adam Gopnik and John McWhorter, and many others. Her close partnerships with prominent composers span genres and generations, with premieres and commissions coming from Billy Childs, Valerie Coleman, Arturo O’Farrill, Teddy Abrams, Clarice Assad, and many others.

Donnie Ray Albert

Donnie Ray Albert is a regular guest of opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world, including numerous appearances with Opera Pacific, Houston Grand Opera, and opera houses across the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is a resident artist with the Center for Black Music Research at Chicago’s Columbia College. Mr. Albert may be heard on RCA’s Grammy Award and Grand Prix du Disque winning recording of Porgy and Bess, NOW’s recording of The Horse I Ride Has Wings with David Garvey on piano, EMI’s Frühlingsbegräbnis and Eine Florentinesche Tragodie by Zemlinsky conducted by James Conlon, and Simon Sargon’s A Clear Midnight on the Gasparo label.

Farkhad Khudyev

Farkhad Khudyev is the winner of the Gold Medal “Beethoven 250” at the 1st International Arthur Nikisch Conducting Competition; the Solti Foundation US 2018 and 2022 Career Assistance Award; the Best Interpretation Prize at the 1st International Taipei Conducting Competition; the 3rd prize at the 8th International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition; and the Gold Medal/Grand Prize at the 2007 National Fischoff Competition. Khudyev has worked with orchestras worldwide including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Monterey Symphony, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Xi’an Symphony Orchestra and the State Taipei Chinese Orchestra. Farkhad was born in Turkmenistan, where he studied at the State Music School for gifted musicians, and then completed his studies at Interlochen Arts Academy, Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University. Khudyev serves as the Music Director of the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra in Austin, and the Orchestral Institute at the Hidden Valley Institute of the Arts in Carmel, California.

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Symphony Orchestra

Principals

1. Adams
2. Copland
3. O’Farrill
4. Tin
    

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Upcoming Events

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
with Anton Nel, piano and Sandy Yamamoto, violin
Free Admission
Friday, September 25, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

PATRICK HUGHES, horn & COLETTE VALENTINE, piano
Monday, September 28, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA
Free Admission
Tuesday, October 6, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Sunday, October 11, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

MIRÓ QUARTET
Saturday, November 7, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

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