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Local Events Calendar
The Philadelphia Orchestra: Lara Downes Plays Price
August 4, 2022
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Host/Presenter: Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC)
Location: 108 Avenue of the Pines, Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866
Email: general@spac.org
More Information: https://spac.org/event/the-philadelphia-orchestra-27/
Making her SPAC debut on this program is American pianist Lara Downes, a trailblazer on- and off-stage and an acclaimed NPR host. As a chart-topping recording artist, a powerfully charismatic performer, a curator and tastemaker, she is recognized as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene.
Downes will perform two SPAC premieres: A Lovesome Thing: Billy Strayhorn Suite, co-commissioned by SPAC, Downes and the Boston Symphony and featuring three selections from the music of Billy Strayhorn, as well as Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, which evokes Price’s experiences as a Black woman raised in the post-Civil War South. This stunning Concerto includes references to spirituals, call-and-response, and the “juba”—a lively, syncopated plantation dance that predates the Civil War.
Closing the program is Brahms’s Second Symphony, possibly his most popular, and said to be his personal favorite. Its pastoral aura surely accounts for some of its appeal; but there is tension and drama as well, building to an extraordinary, triumphant finale.
Tickets range from $29-$90.
