The Augusta Symphony will close out its 69th year on May 11 with a special piece.
Since September 2023, the symphony has played a season inspired by maestro Dirk Meyer’s recent naturalization as a U.S. citizen, called “American Perspectives.” The theme of this season has included music by American-born composers, as well as immigrant composers from around the world who chose to make the United States their home, according to a news release from the Augusta Symphony.
Names like Igor Stravinsky and Kurt Weill, who sought inspiration and respite in the New World, have presented alongside homegrown composers like George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Duke Ellington, resulting in musical offerings for this season that have been curated to bring the diversity of the proverbial melting pot into our own backyard, the release continued.
“It’s really fascinating to explore this with the composers that came over and went through the same process,” said Meyer, in Sept. 14, 2023 article at Augusta Good News, about the process of becoming an American citizen.
The Piedmont Augusta Symphony Season finale, “Symphonic Jazz,” features the United States premiere of Polish composer Henry Wars’ “City Sketches.” As featured by the University of Southern California’s Polish Music Center, the three-movement jazz symphony highlights bustling American cities, deep blues themes and carefree highway joyrides and showcases Wars’ astonishment with American sights and sounds both before and after immigrating to the United States, the news release said.
It is paired with well-known pieces from Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein as well as Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis” as a journey through the marriage of traditional classical music and modern jazz melodies.
“Symphonic Jazz” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. at the Miller Theater. Tickets are still available online at AugustaSymphony.com and at the Miller Theater Box Office, which is open from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. Monday through Friday and two hours prior to the performance, and purchases can be made in-person or via phone at (706) 842-4080 ext. 1.
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