ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Albany Symphony, led by Music Director David Alan Miller, returns to Albany's Palace Theatre stage this Saturday, November 12, at 7:30 p.m. for a program featuring music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Edward K. (Duke) Ellington, and composer Joel Thompson, who made his Albany Symphony debut last month at the Symphony's opening night.
Thompson, whose powerful work "An Act of Resistance," was a highlight of the Opening Night program that brought concertgoers to their feet, is currently touring his latest work—a work Miller and the Symphony simply had to bring to the Capital Region after the profound impact the composer had on everyone last month. Miller saw an opportunity after tuba soloist Carol Jantsch, who was originally scheduled to join the Symphony for this performance, had to withdraw from the program.
“Joel has a fantastic new work—'To Awaken the Sleeper,' a gorgeous setting of texts by James Baldwin—which I've been eager to share on a future concert,” Miller said. “Joel is a superstar, a thrilling new voice on the music scene, the kind of composer the Albany Symphony and I are proud to share the stage with.”
About the upcoming program Miller continued, “In addition to Joel Thompson’s new piece, narrated by the composer, we present radiant late works by two of the most inspirational creative artists of the 20th Century, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Duke Ellington. Ellington’s beautiful, deeply evocative late ballet, The River, from 1970, is a remarkable synthesis of Duke’s unparalleled mastery of jazz idioms and his great interest in the sound possibilities of the orchestra. Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, his last orchestral work, is his crowning masterpiece, a passionate, deeply romantic exploration of life, love, and humanity. A not to be missed, life-affirming concert!”
This Saturday's concert kicks off at 7:30 p.m. A pre-concert talk, free to ticketholders, will be held an hour earlier, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $65 and can be purchased by phone at (518) 694-3300, on the Albany Symphony website, at Palace Theatre box office, or at the door.
