Seasons of America with Teddy Abrams & Ray Chen

Composer/conductor Teddy Abrams, “a maestro of the people” (The New York Times) and violin virtuoso Ray Chen survey more than a century of American symphonic music, from Charles Ives’ early 20th-century depiction of his native New England to the world premiere of Abrams contemporary stateside take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The Grammy-winning Abrams wrote the Seasons of America specifically for Chen, who’s known for “both his ability to spin out huge musical lines of thought and the strong-boned, penetrating, caramel-toned passion of his sound” (Gramophone). Julia Perry ingeniously condensed the breadth of the orchestral palette into less than 10 minutes in her Short Piece for Orchestra, which kicks off the program, and George Gershwin’s “rhapsodic ballet,” An American in Paris, closes with the energy and coquettishness of a visit to the “City of Light.” Concerts in the Thursday 2 subscription series are generously supported by The Otis Booth Foundation.