Celebrating American Composers with the Conductor of the Boston Pops

A Quintessential Music Cruise under the direction of Maestro Keith Lockhart.     

The waterways of eastern Canada and northern New England are among the loveliest, the most dramatic in the world. The rock-bound coast, the soaring cliffs, the idyllic waterfront villages have drawn visitors for more than a hundred years. Our voyage will allow us to sample all of the delights of this part of the world – the romantic city of Quebec, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the wildlife-rich Saguenay River; the Gaspé Peninsula, where Jacques Cartier staked out Canada for France; Cape Breton; historic Louisbourg; stunning Bar Harbor, Maine; and much more.

But the truly unique element of this voyage is the musical program curated and performed by legendary Boston Pops Conductor, Keith Lockhart. Joined by six extraordinary musicians, maestro Lockhart serves as our guide to the elegance of a Parisian salon, the raw energy of the New World, and the seductive rhythms of the jazz age.

In a historic venue ashore in Quebec, he begins with Fête à la française, transporting us a century into the past to the Parisian salon of the Princesse de Polignac, the American heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune and one of the most influential arts patrons of the 20th century. We’ll hear chamber music, piano works, and songs by Debussy, Ravel (including his ravishing Pavane), Faure, Saint Saens, and the Crème de la Crème of Parisian musical society.

An American in Paris/A Frenchman in New York explores how American and European musical cultures were united by a fascination with the distinctly American harmonies and rhythms of jazz. This performance features the music of Gershwin (An American in Paris, in a wonderful four-hand piano arrangement), Milhaud (his groundbreaking ballet score, La Création du Monde), Ravel, and George Antheil, the American bad boy of 1920’s music on both shores, whose story is worthy of a Hollywood movie!

Finding a Voice chronicles the development of a distinctive American music, through the music of true American originals like Copland, Gershwin, Ellington, Barber (his immortal Adagio for Strings), and Ives. Antonin Dvorak, whose 1890s visit to the New World helped galvanize and define the generations of composers to follow, is represented this evening, as are some Canadian musical pioneers with fascinating stories.

Celebrating American Composers with the Conductor of the Boston Pops

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