RHAPSODY - Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra in Concert!

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra (RSO) continues its season on Saturday, February 7th at 7:30 PM at David F. Clune Auditorium at Wilton High School with a concert titled RHAPSODY. The concert features the outstanding professional musicians of the RSO, under the leadership of Music Director Eric Mahl and joined in concert by awarded winning marimbist Ji Su Jung. The concert program includes marvelous, enthralling music by Samuel Barber, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and contemporary, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts.

The concert opens with Barber’s spirited School for Scandal Overture, the composer’s first work for full orchestra, composed in 1931 while he was completing his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The premiere was given in 1933 by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Following the Barber, Ji Su Jung, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Grant, a first for percussion, will perform Kevin Puts’ Marimba Concerto, written in 1997. While not having commissioned or premiered the piece, Jung has come champion the work and her performance of the piece has been called “. . . dazzling – filled with breathtaking virtuosity but also beautifully shaped with extraordinary color and nuance.” Ms. Jung recorded the concerto with the Baltimore Symphony in 2023.

The second half of the evening’s musical program continues with a jazz infused piece by Duke Ellington - Black, Brown and Beige. Written in 1943, the work tells the history of African Americans and was the composer's attempt to transform attitudes about race, elevate American music (specifically jazz), to be seen as on par with classical European music, and challenge America to live up to its founding principles of freedom and equality for all. The Ellington work also leads perfectly into the final piece on the program, George Gershwin’s marvelous American in Paris featuring 70 orchestra musicians!