How does a Black American woman find the freedom to compose music for the concert hall in an era when doing so seemed impossible? How does a British composer avoid the incoming shells of a cruel foreign regime and write a solo concerto with a peaceful quality for the most pastoral of instruments? Can a Czech composer find a way to show his gratitude through a piece of music and still retain his personal and distinctive style?
The BSO will do its best to answer these questions as it plays Florence Price’s Concert Overture No. 1 based on the spiritual, “Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass,” and the Symphony No. 8 in G Major by Antonín Dvořák. In between, the BSO will send principal oboist Megan Werner to the soloist’s spotlight for Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings. Come and hear how music always finds its way through times of enigma to bring forth joy!
