KEARNEY – Kearney Symphony Orchestra will present a livestream performance, “From Sea to Shining Sea: Celebrating American Music in the Heartland,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The free concert features the orchestra’s brass and percussion, woodwind and string ensembles and a special performance by University of Nebraska at Kearney sophomore Jacob Cahill. It will be livestreamed at unk.edu/music. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, there won’t be an in-person audience.
The concert includes works by American composers George Gershwin, Norman Dello Joio and John Steinmetz, as well as a saxophone concerto by Pierre-Max Dubois that will be performed by Cahill, winner of the UNK Concerto-Aria Competition.
A North Platte native, Cahill is studying music performance with a philosophy minor. He’s a member of the UNK Wind Ensemble, Jazz/Rock Ensemble and Kearney Symphony Orchestra.
Tuesday’s program opens with “Lullaby,” a bluesy selection for strings by Gershwin, and the second half of the concert features Gershwin’s iconic work “An American in Paris,” arranged for brass and percussion. A Dello Joio piece for orchestral strings and a Steinmetz work, in three movements for winds, will round out the performance.
“This program focuses on the unity we achieve as musicians and audience celebrating music composed from coast to coast and performed here and abroad,” said Kearney Symphony Orchestra conductor and director Alison Gaines, an assistant professor of music and Ronald J. Crocker Chair of Orchestra at UNK.
“The diversity in styles and orchestrations speaks to the rich heritage of American composers that the Kearney Symphony Orchestra performs,” Gaines added. “This program is sure to appeal to a broad audience.”
Kearney Symphony Orchestra is comprised of UNK faculty and students and instrumentalists from communities across the region.
