The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tyler Goodrich White, presents the final concert of its 2017-2018 season, titled “Journeys in the Imagination,” featuring music by Philip Glass and Ralph Vaughan Williams on Sunday, April 29 at 3 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall.
To open the program, the orchestra will be joined by pianist Paul Barnes and Native American flutist Ron Warren for a reprise of their April 17 Lied Center performance of Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (after Lewis and Clark). The concerto, inspired by the famous journey through the Great Plains and American Northwest of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their Shoshone guide Sacagawea, was commissioned by Barnes in 2001 and premiered by him with the Omaha Symphony in 2004. The 35-minute work, characterized by the rhythmic dynamism, lyric sweep, and meditative emotion of Glass’s finest work, is a virtuoso tour-de-force for piano and orchestra alike.
Rounding out the program is Ralph Vaughan Williams’s monumental A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2). Filled with references to English folk and popular song, the symphony is a vibrant evocation of the London of a century ago, and a moving meditation both on the panorama of English history and on the wider destiny of humanity as a whole.
The concert takes place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 29 in the Glenn Korff School of Music’s Kimball Recital Hall. General admission is $5, $3 for students and seniors.
Directed by Dr. Tyler White, members of the Symphony Orchestra include students from throughout the university. The ensemble’s objectives are to prepare and present a wide variety of repertoire including chamber, symphonic, and operatic masterworks, and to maintain professional standards of musicianship and etiquette within a collegial and supportive educational atmosphere.
The performance will also be live webcast. The direct link is available the day of the event at music.unl.edu.