Curtis Symphony Orchestra Presents RAY CHEN PLAYS BARBER At Raymond F. Kravis Center

The 2024–25 Curtis Symphony Orchestra series continues on Friday, December 13, at 3:00 p.m. in Philadelphia's Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center, and on Sunday, December 15, at 2:00 p.m. in the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Prize-winning violinist Ray Chen ('10) joins forces with Curtis Symphony Orchestra to perform Samuel Barber's ('34) electrifying Violin Concerto under the baton of internationally acclaimed composer, pianist, and clarinetist Teddy Abrams (Conducting '08). This all-American program also features works by TJ Cole (Composition '17), George Walker (Piano and Composition '45), and Aaron Copland. Curtis Symphony Orchestra's encore performance in West Palm Beach, Florida, marks the ensemble's first appearance at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

The program opens with Curtis alum, composer, and producer TJ Cole's Death of the Poet, conducted by Yoann Combémorel, first-year Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow. Inspired by encountering Conrad Felixmüller's enormous 1925 painting “Death of the Poet Walter Rheiner” at the Art Institute of Chicago, this deeply elegiac work depicts the tragic demise of a 30-year-old poet jumping from a high apartment window and the “deep purples and blues and greens” displayed on the artist's canvas recreated in the composer's work to evoke the “artist's colors with instruments.”

The concert continues with legendary composer and Curtis alumnus George Walker's landmark, 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning song cycle for vocal soloist and orchestra Lilacs, featuring vibrant soprano Kylie Kreucher, the Florence R. Laden Memorial Fellow at Curtis. This poignant meditation on grief and remembrance reflects on the shocking assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Written when the composer was 74 years old, the cycle is a setting of the first three stanzas and thirteenth stanza of famed American poet and essayist Walt Whitman's “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” an 1865 poem inspired by his harrowing experiences as a nurse during the Civil War. Across four contrasting movements, Lilacs employs a rich harmonic language that often blurs traditional tonal centers, incorporating dissonance and chromaticism to capture the tension, resolution, and emotional depth of Whitman's poetry.

Internationally renowned violinist and Curtis alumnus Ray Chen, celebrated for his “gorgeous tone” (Chicago Tribune) and “full-bodied lyricism” (New York Times), returns to his alma mater to perform Samuel Barber's monumental Violin Concerto, Op. 14. An unabashedly romantic work, the piece grows in depth and beauty as it evolves across two lyrical, melodic movements—the introspective air shifts in the blistering third movement. Sparks fly, daring the soloist to deliver 110 measures without pause, as it hurls forward with virtuosic, break-neck speed toward its blazing conclusion. Among Barber's first significant commissions in the years following his graduation from Curtis, this towering work has since become a cornerstone of the standard repertoire and one of the seminal masterpieces of 20th-century concerto literature.

The concert concludes with Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3. Capturing the euphoric post-wartime spirit of the United States in 1946, this ambitious, patriotic final symphony makes little to no use of folk themes or hymns, as was the composer's signature trademark, but instead strikes a balance between his more abstract works and those for film and ballet, while incorporating one of his most iconic creations into the fourth movement, the majestic Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland's third symphony reflects and transcends the era in which it was written, standing as a lasting tribute to the strength and resilience of everyday Americans in the face of great adversity—a work that still resonates with audiences almost eight decades after its premiere.

Single tickets for “Ray Chen Plays Barber” at Marian Anderson Hall start at $24 and are available through curtis.edu. Curtis Symphony Orchestra's special concert at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is part of Curtis on Tour's 2024–25 series and tickets can be purchased directly through the Kravis Center's website. Curtis' flexible Choose Your Own subscription option offers 25% off single ticket prices when purchasing tickets to two or more performances. To order a subscription, visit curtis.edu/subscribe, call (215) 893-7902, or email tickets@curtis.edu. To learn more about performances in Curtis' 2024–25 season, including the Curtis Opera Theatre, Curtis New Music Ensemble concerts, Curtis Recital Series, and more, visit curtis.edu/calendar.

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