Eckart Preu, Conductor Terrence Wilson, Piano

A Classical fusion of pop, rock, jazz, Broadway, and electro-acoustic elements.

We open the season with an off-the-charts fusion of contemporary American music in celebration of the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein. In tribute to Bernstein’s fascination with Pop Music, we start the concert with a work by Frank Zappa who began his career in classical music but found acceptance only in pop/rock music due to his often-irreverent song title; case in point, his G-Spot Tornado. Zappa thought the work was too difficult for humans to play, so you won’t want to miss the Long Beach Symphony executing its throbbing motifs! You’ll hear jazz elements in Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra and his iconic Rhapsody in Blue, a work Bernstein had played and recorded early in his career. Living composer Mason Bates (born 1977), is a Bernstein protégé. He “‎imagines the orchestra as a Mothership that is ‘docked’ by several visiting soloists, who offer virtuosic riffs…over action-packed electro-acoustic orchestral figuration.” This explosive program ends with music by the honoree: Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

Program and artists subject to change.