Chamber Music Series: American Crossroads
American Portraits
Antoine T. Clark, conductor
Ben Shirley, composer-in-residence
Marcus Jackson, narrator
Scott Hanratty, bassoon
Program:
Benny’s Gig – Morton Gould
Portraits of Langston – Valerie Coleman
Big Pine Key – Ben Shirley (world premiere)
Dead Elvis – Michael Daugherty
American Portraits celebrates musical storytelling through vivid depictions of people, places, and cultural memory. Morton Gould’s Benny’s Gig, written for clarinet and double bass, pays tribute to clarinetist Benny Goodman with cool elegance and jazzy nuance. Valerie Coleman’s Portraits of Langston sets the poetry of Langston Hughes to music in a moving dialogue between narrator and chamber ensemble—featuring flute, clarinet, and piano—evoking scenes from Harlem to Paris, with themes of love, travel, and identity at the fore.
The program also features the world premiere of Big Pine Key, a trio for flute, clarinet, and piano by WCO Composer-in-Residence Ben Shirley, written as a heartfelt tribute to his late father-in-law and mother. Inspired by the natural beauty and wildlife of the Florida Keys, this piece honors family, loss, and legacy through luminous textures and lyrical warmth. The evening concludes with Michael Daugherty’s theatrical Dead Elvis for solo bassoon and chamber ensemble—a riotous collision of classical form and pop iconography that reimagines Elvis Presley in a surreal musical afterlife. These portraits—personal, poetic, and bold—reveal the ever-shifting intersections of American culture at the crossroads of past and present.
Wed, Mar 25 • 7:00 pm
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