This February, Nashua Symphony Orchestra and Chorus has been performing a program highlighting several works by New Hampshire composers during its four-city tour of the state. Among the works on the program are Help is on the Way by Kevin Siegfried, a resident of Dover, as well as the New Hampshire premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Chasing Light… which is part of the national commissioning consortium project Ford Made in America. For Siegfried’s piece, a setting of high-school poetry for voices and strings, the orchestra will also be joined by Bow High School Chamber Singers, Conway’s Kennet High School Choir, and the Keene State College Concert Choir. Also on the program are Bernard Herrmann’s The Devil and Daniel Webster, a narrated suite of Stephen Vincent Benét’s story, which is set in New Hampshire; and selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, written partially while Bernstein was in residence at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The orchestra performed the program in Nashua on February 13 and continues to Concord on February 19, Plymouth on February 26, and Keene on February 28.
Ford Made in America is made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund, the philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Company. Major support is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, and The Amphion Foundation.
Posted February 18, 2010
