Adolphus Hailstork: I think we need to make room in our listening experience for American composers as well as the standard classics.
James Stewart: That’s the voice of American composer Adolphus Hailsork.
Adolphus: I'm originally from New York State, Albany, New York. And I've been writing music for more than 60 years. I started writing when I was 16. I decided in high school that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to write music and that was it. I’m still at it. I’m finally getting it.
James: Hailstork has created quite a catalog of works over the decades. Music that’s performed around the world; including “Celebration” for Orchestra, “Done Made My Vow” for chorus and orchestra...
Adolphus: ...and “Symphony No. 1” gets a lot of play, more than any other symphony.
James: One of my personal favorite works by Hailstork is a piece he wrote while teaching at Norfolk State University, not far from where I was born, on the Virginia coast. The piece is called “An American Port of Call.”
Adolphus: The conductor of the Virginia Symphony said he wanted to open the concert with “Celebration,” which I'd written in the 70s. And I said, “Look, don't, that’s getting a lot of play. Let me write you something new.” And so I wrote “An American Port of Call” because this is a seaport, in fact, the largest naval base in America. And it's turned out to be a piece that's been played a lot.
James: And you’ll have a chance to hear this piece performed live! Adolphus Hailstork’s “An American Port of Call” starts the program of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s season opener.
Andrew Crust: I think this piece in particular is a perfect fit for this program because it's a merger of jazz and classical music. It depicts the hustle and bustle of ships and cranes in Norfolk, Virginia in a harbor. And to me that reminds me of that hustle and bustle of “American in Paris.”
James: That’s Andrew Crust, the music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. The VSO’s 90th anniversary season opens this weekend with performances in Burlington and Rutland. These opening concerts, entitled “American Excellence,” feature the music of Hailstork, Gershwin and William Grant Still.
Andrew: So this whole concert is really just a celebration of that unique American style, which really comes from blending all different kinds of styles together. And one of those big pieces is of course jazz and each of the composers weaves jazz into their scores in different ways. For Gershwin, he learned jazz in New York City. He worked on Tin Pan Alley growing up and he was able to fuse American jazz with European classical music in a way that many, many people could not do. We're gonna be performing two of his works, of course, the legendary “Rhapsody In Blue,” which actually premiered 100 years ago.
James: This performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” will be unlike any you’ve probably heard before. The solo part, written for piano of course, will be played on the banjo by the one and only Béla Fleck.
Andrew: He's a musician's musician, I think. He can play in so many styles and he just, he's a consummate player and players really love to perform with him. He'll be playing the piano part. I also know that Béla will put his own touch on it and there will be some improvisation and some ornamentation which absolutely, I think Gershwin would have appreciated.
James: The second half of the program begins with another favorite work by Gershwin, that we’ve already mentioned, “An American in Paris.”
Andrew: And he fused everything he had learned in the United States with that general feeling of Europe. And it's just a wonderful example of sort of the melting pot of the United States.
We finish the program with William Grant Still’s First Symphony "Afro-american." And this is I think one of the great American symphonies, it's a piece which really reflects African American heritage and life during his time, which is most of the 20th century.
James: Don’t miss the kick off the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s 90th anniversary season. The concert, “Béla Fleck and American Excellence” is coming to the Flynn Center in Burlington, Friday, September 27th and the Paramount Theatre in Rutland, Saturday, September 28th. Both concerts start at 7:30pm.
Adolphus: All of the music that's on the program is very approachable.
Andrew: This is gonna be a concert that's full of melodies that you know, it's a feel good concert.
James: For tickets and more information head to the symphony’s website, VSO.org.
Adolphus: Go Americana!
