Hearts and Minds

2016-17 Season: Hearts and Minds

Using music as a lens toĀ understand the human experience, as expressed in masterworks of sound, students are not only challenged toĀ perform great pieces of symphonic music at the highest possible level of technical excellence, but they are alsoĀ challenged to become ā€œexpert noticersā€ and to explore deeply an essential question.

The 2016-17 season will explore the question: how is music political?. Music historians have shown that every pieceĀ of music arises from within a particular culture, with its own values, morality, and power structures, and these are allĀ embedded in the music itself.

The politics of music has been a rich topic of inquiry in music studies for at least the last twenty-five years, but threeĀ current events make it even more relevant today: the refugee crisis, the rise of a global economy accompanied by aĀ rise in nationalism throughout the world, and of course, the 2016 American presidential election.

Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Hearts and Minds
November 6, 2016

Even the ancient Greeks recognized musicā€™s power to move people. Plato warned: ā€œAny musical innovation is full ofĀ danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited.ā€ Itā€™s not hard to understand how a pop song is used by aĀ political candidate, but what about classical orchestral music music with no text? How does it reinforce culturalĀ values and support power structures, or try to subvert them? This concert will explore Shostakovichā€™s powerful butĀ enigmatic Symphony No. 9, Beethovenā€™s heroic style and tribute to Napoleon, and works of Bartok, Prokofiev,Ā Khachaturian, and Wagner.

Verdi's Nabucco at the Metropolitan Opera

Verdi’s Nabucco at the Metropolitan Opera

By the Waters of Babylon: Music of Exile, Longing, and Home
March 12, 2017

One of the oldest songs of exile is Psalm 137, expressing the longing for home of Jews who had been captured andĀ forced to relocate in Babylon. This Jewish diaspora has been repeated throughout history, as various peoples haveĀ been pushed out of their homeland by war, destruction, or economic collapse. This concert features music fromĀ Verdiā€™s Nabucco, including the famous ā€œChorus of the Hebrew Slaves,ā€ as well as music of the Irish diaspora of theĀ 19th century and of Jewish composer refugees from Nazi Europe. Also featured are spirituals, blues, andĀ jazzā€”Americaā€™s greatest contribution to music, with its roots in the African slave trade and diaspora.

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

We the People: Identity and Music
May 7, 2017

Music has always helped forge the identity of peoples, whether tribes, nations, religions, or even sports teams. ManyĀ of the great composers of the 19 th century are remembered for colorful music which celebrated the language and folkĀ music traditions of their people. Featured is the deeply nationalistic music of Grieg (Norway), Dvorak (Bohemia),Ā Sibelius (Finland), Vaughan Williams, Holst and others, as well as the American sound of Copland, Gershwin, andĀ Bernstein.

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