New Year's Day
Jan. 1, 2021 | 4:30-5:00pm
The National Bell Festival is thrilled to present Elizabeth Hill on piano for a program highlighting the rich diversity and history of piano works in America. Each of the featured composers, spanning more than a century of creative exploration, expands upon the musical language of heritage, of folk and sacred music, to forge new and boundary-reshaping narratives in their art. Past meets present. Present challenges expectations and propels the future. This is a concert for the New Year.
First...
Florence Beatrice Price (1887 – 1953)
The first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.
William Grant Still (1895 – 1978)
The first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony (his 1st Symphony) performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television.
...and Forward
Alexandra Gardner
An internationally-renowned composer and D.C. native who composes for varied instrumentations, often mixing acoustic instruments with electronics to blend lyricism, deep rhythmic exploration, textural development, and a love of sonic storytelling.
Tatev Amiryan
An Armenian composer and pianist now living in San Francisco, whose music stretches structural expectations and pulls from her love of improvisational performance and the folk music she grew up with to create vocal, instrumental, chamber, and symphonic works.
We want to keep everyone safe. In response to COVID-19, this program will be streamed online on New Year's Day as part of our lineup of free National Bell Festival experiences. You can tune-in, listen, and watch from home! Sign up to receive connection and streaming details right to your inbox.
