Vallejo Symphony - An American in Paris

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2024 (8:00PM)
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2024 (3:00 PM)
George Gershwin, An American in Paris
Aaron Copland, Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, and Harp
TODD PALMER, CLARINET
George Bizet, Symphony in C

This program is all about Paris! The city was a magnet for artists, authors, and composers from around the world. In particular, American composers sought out advice from French composers, and Gershwin, always a little insecure about his classical writing went to Ravel for help. His tone poem of 1928, An American in Paris evokes the sights and sounds that he heard while staying there - it is again one of the monuments of American Modernism, and it is one of the only classical pieces that has inspired a movie. Aaron Copland also studied in Paris and his Clarinet Concerto of 1947 was commissioned by Benny Goodman, and appropriately enough also features the characteristic sounds of Jazz. We conclude the program by the work of 17-year old French composer Georges Bizet - his effervescent Symphony in C, written in 1855.
Clarinetist Todd Palmer is a three-time Grammy nominee and has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator around the world. He has championed and recorded Osvaldo Golijov’s klezmer clarinet quintet, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac
the Blind; commissioned Ricky Gordon’s theatre work, Orpheus and Euridice, presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center; and also premiered David Bruce’s Gumboots at Carnegie Hall.