January 26, 2008
American Beauty
Colin Currie, percussion

Close your eyes, listen, and remember the beauty and grandeur of an America that’s inspired composers like Copland and Barber in some of their most memorable works.
HIGDON
COPLAND
BARBER
HANSON		 Concerto for Percussion•
Appalachian Spring
Adagio for Strings
Symphony No. 2, Romantic
Colin Currie, percussion
As one of the brightest new influences in his field, Colin Currie has quickly established a unique reputation for his charismatic and virtuosic performances of works by today’s leading composers, and has already appeared with many of the world’s most important orchestras. Regularly commissioning and recording new works, he is an important new force in shaping percussion repertoire for orchestra, chamber music and solo performance.
* features guest artist

Programs are listed in concert order, but are subject to change.

All concerts begin at 8 pm in the Terrace Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center.

All concerts conducted by Music Director Enrique Arturo Diemecke
Maestro’s Insights
By Enrique Arturo Diemecke

American Beauty

In this season of musical journeys, we could not ignore the compositional riches of America. Copland’s descriptive ballet, Appalachian Spring, and Barber’s spirited Adagio for Strings have become icons, representing the beauty and grandeur of America. The Barber was the very first work I conducted as your music director, just one week after September 11, 2001. We added it to the beginning of my first concert as a tribute to those who had fallen on that tragic day.

This concert features the return of percussion virtuoso Colin Currie. He last appeared with the LBSO as the soloist in Tan Dun’s Water Percussion Concerto. It was so much fun to watch this young and talented star splash around with instruments dripping with water! This

concerto, by young American superstar Jennifer Higdon, was written especially for Colin and will feature him on many different instruments spread out across the front of the stage. It really rocks!

I know you will adore the Copland and Barber, but I bet you’ll fall in love with Howard Hanson’s lesser known Romantic Symphony. Hanson is one of America’s forgotten masters from the early 20th century. Perhaps he is less familiar because he wrote in a romantic style and never embraced the dissonant and complex music championed by Schoenberg and other modernists of the time. Whatever the reason, this is as captivating, lyrical and powerful a romantic symphony as anything Tchaikovsky or Dvorák penned.