First Collaboration with Abilene Phil Features City’s Mayor
Next season we will have our first collaboration with Maestro David Itkin and the Abilene Philharmonic. Their October 26 masterworks concert, “Visions of America,” will feature one piece from our repertoire commemorating an important period in American history and another showcasing an important cultural legacy that lives on today. Leading up to the Saturday night concert, we will also have four educational concerts for Abilene’s young music lovers during the week.
The historical piece, The Eternal Struggle, features hundreds of archival images portraying one of America’s most challenging periods—the Civil War. The piece also pays tribute to the character and fortitude of Abraham Lincoln, and appropriately, all of the imagery is choreographed to Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. The special Lincoln narrator for the evening is none other than Abilene’s mayor, Anthony Williams. Williams is the first African-American mayor in the city’s 138-year history.
Changing up the pace a bit is Rodeo!, another piece set to music by Copland. It captures the fun and excitement of a small town rodeo from behind the scenes. Photographed on location in Arizona and Utah with a backdrop of sweeping western landscapes and ranching heritage, it’s a lively portrait of life in the beautiful American West.
Rounding out the program at the Abilene Convention Center is Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite and Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis. It’s going to be a great collaboration, and since the Abilene Phil has already signed on for a future concert, we’re looking forward to seeing some familiar faces in the audience next time too.
