Join Raymond Jones this Wednesday evening at 9:00 on WHRO-FM for “A Local Touch – Music with a Virginia Connection,” the program that highlights music and musicians with ties to Virginia.
Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” will be heard on Virginia Symphony Orchestra stages this weekend, with performances scheduled Friday in Norfolk and Saturday in Newport News, along with the orchestra’s popular PBJ concerts in Newport News and Virginia Beach. To set the stage for those performances, this week’s program features the symphony as conducted by the Virginia Symphony’s conductor emerita, JoAnn Falletta, with her “other” orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Following that, we’ll hear the Virginia Symphony Orchestra under music director Eric Jacobsen in George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” joined by banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck in a performance that blends classical and American musical traditions.
From Virginia-born composer Mason Bates comes “Sirens,” a work inspired by the mythical sea creatures of legend, and performed here by Cappella San Francisco.
Choral music also takes the spotlight with the Choir of Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Richmond, led by Dr. Elizabeth Melcher Winger, performing John Rutter’s beloved “Requiem.”
We’ll also hear Symphony No. 4 by Norfolk composer Ludwig Diehn, performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Eduard Flipse.
To conclude the program, tenor Christopher A. Leach and pianist Mary Dibbern perform “Four Poems” by Richmond composer Mary Howe, settings of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Tune in Wednesday evening at 9:00 on WHRO-FM 90.3, or listen online, for another edition of “A Local Touch – Music with a Virginia Connection.”
