Greetings from Los Angeles

GREETINGS FROM LOS ANGELES

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2023 @ 7:30 PM

POTTER CENTER

Section A: $35
Section B: $30
Section C $20
Student Tickets: $5

Individual tickets go on sale August 1st

Soloists Julian Schwartz and Marika Bournaki return to the JSO for our first of two programs this year featuring American music. Join us as we explore the generations of American music beginning with John Adams’ most recognizable work – Short Ride in a Fast Machine. We will also hear a commissioned double concerto by Jackson’s own Marcus Norris and the program completes with Aaron Copland’s epic Third Symphony, harkening to sounds of Fanfare for the Common Man.

PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATION
Join us for a free, interactive lecture before the concert at 6:30pm.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

John Adams
Short Ride in a Fast Machine <1986>
Composed by John Adams in 1986, this piece features a fast and energetic tempo with a prominent rhythm played by the woodblocks, representing the experience of a short and thrilling ride. As a commentary on the title, Adams inquires, “You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?”

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Marcus Norris
Double Concerto

Aaron Copland
Symphony No.3 <1944–1946>
Composed between 1944 and 1946, this is a large-scale work for orchestra that features themes of American optimism and patriotism. It has been widely regarded as one of Copland’s most important compositions. The work premiered in 1946 and has since become a staple of the orchestral repertoire.

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RUNTIME: 1H 45M

MUSIC PREVIEW


AFTERPARTY

Location: Country Club of Jackson

Keep the celebration going after the baton is down and the instruments are put away. Taking place in various locations around Jackson following Saturday evening concerts, these events are a great opportunity to mingle with musicians, guest artists, composers, other symphony fans, and of course, the Maestro. All are welcome at this event and the $20 ticket buys you entry, hors d’oeuvres, and drinks.

Tickets Coming Soon


GUEST ARTISTS

Marcus Norris
Composer

Dr. Marcus Norris’s first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he Macgyvered together from spare parts while lying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds.

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This cross-genre mastery resulted in Beyoncé asking Marcus to orchestrate several songs for her and 50-piece orchestra as part of her surprise 2023 Dubai return to live performance. Miss Tina Knowles-Lawson also chose Marcus as Music Director for the 2022 Wearable Art Gala, with Marcus and South Side Symphony performing as the on-stage orchestra accompanying Chloe & Halle Bailey, Andra Day, and more.

Marcus founded South Side Symphony in 2020, which he describes as “like a younger, more ‘ratchet’ version of The Roots, accompanied by lush live strings and horns.” The ensemble recorded their first live album in 2023 through a weekend of three sold-out shows in North Hollywood. As a film composer, the Boston Herald praised his “impressively orchestral score” for the 2022 feature film “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” starring Regina Hall & Sterling K. Brown, written and directed by Adamma Ebo.

He has made a number of achievements in concert music, including earning a commission from the Atlanta Opera as prize for winning their inaugural 96-hour Opera Project, making his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut in 2022 with his piece “MERCY” as part of the LA Phil’s National Composers Intensive, orchestrating the world premiere of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of “The Factotum” by Will Liverman and DJ King Rico, collaborating on Adrian Dunn’s “Emancipation”, and being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship to earn his PhD in Music Composition at UCLA. His violin concerto “GLORY” opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. His Dance Suite “I Tried So Hard for You” premiered in Havana in 2018, closely following the Russian String Orchestra premiere of “My Idols Are Dead” in Moscow.

Julian Schwarz & Marika Bournaki
Cello & Piano

Cellist Julian Schwarz and pianist Marika Bournaki met as students at the 2006 Aspen Music Festival, subsequently reconnecting at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival and as students at The Juilliard School in New York City. They began their musical collaboration in 2014, and made their debut at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, DC.

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As the winners of the First Prize in the Boulder International Chamber Music Competition’s inaugural “The Art of Duo,” Schwarz & Bournaki have been presented in prizewinner recitals at the Boulder Bach Festival, as well as performances at New York City’s Bargemusic, The University Club and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, The Musical Club of Hartford and Canada’s Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts.

Recent appearances by Schwarz & Bournaki include Bargemusic, The Juilliard School and The National Arts Club in New York City, Danbury Music Center (CT), The Embassy Series (Washington, DC), Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival and Hammond Chamber Music Series (MA), Thurnauer School of Music (NJ), The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Peninsula College and Second City Chamber Music Series (WA), Canada’s Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance and Salzburg, Austria’s Mozarteum. Their 2016-17 season was highlighted by a 10-recital tour of China, which included the grand-opening performance at the new concert hall in Qianjiang.

Schwarz & Bournaki have recorded the complete cello and piano music of Ernest Bloch (2015) for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music and made the world premiere recording of Bright Sheng’s Northern Lights (2017) on the Naxos label.

SPONSORED BY

Thomas and Susan Rochester