ABOUT THE EVENT

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WOLF TRAP OPERA

John Morris Russell, conductor
Anna Lopez, performer
Gabrielle Beteag, mezzo soprano
Martin Luther Clark, tenor
Logan Wagner, tenor
Blake Denson, baritone
Charles Eaton, baritone

What does it mean to be an American immigrant? That is the question at the heart of NOI+F 2024’s opening performance, spotlighting an array of historical perspectives into this key inquiry into our national identity. Conductor John Morris Russell of the Cincinnati Pops celebrates his 10-year anniversary opening NOI+F with a program that begins with performances of two unalloyed symbols of Americana: The Star-Spangled Banner and Charles Ives' Variations on America. The NOI Philharmonic continues with works from a selection of composers ultimately claimed by the United States and whose journeys across borders deeply informs their music: the Russian Igor Stravinsky and his Scherzo a la Russe; Hungarian Miklós Rozsa and his Oscar-nominated Parade of the Charioteers and the Kings Row Suite from Austrian Erich Wolfgang Korngold's soundtrack for the titular 1942 movie. Next, the audience is invited to sample more contemporary visions of American experience: Argentinian nuevo tango revolutionary Astor Piazzolla's 1959 elegy to his father Adios Nonino, penned while in New York; and Armenian-American Mary Kouyoumdjian's 2013 orchestral composition Diary of an Immigrant, meant to capture (in her words) "the strange and bittersweet stillness once immigration is achieved." The evening concludes with Kurt Weill's 1933 score to The Seven Deadly Sins. Created by Weill in Paris before he had ever even visited the U.S., the work plots a satirical musical travelogue of America's cities, each as representative of a chief vice.This ballet chanté would be Weill's last major collaboration with his longtime creative partner Bertolt Brecht, who provides lyrics for our special vocal guests, select members of Wolf Trap Opera.

PROGRAM
Ives: Variations on America
Stravinsky: Scherzo a la Russe
Piazzolla: Adios Nonino
Rozsa: Parade of the Charioteers
Kouyoumdjian: Diary of an Immigrant
Korngold: Kings Row Suite
Weill: Seven Deadly Sins

FUNDING

This performance is funded in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY.

The Kurt Weill Foundation, Inc. promotes and perpetuates the legacies of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya by encouraging an appreciation of Weill’s music through support of performances, recordings and scholarship, and by fostering an understanding of Weill’s and Lenya’s lives and work within diverse cultural contexts. It administers the Weill-Lenya Research Center, a Grant and Collaborative Performance Initiative Program, the Lotte Lenya Competition, the Kurt Weill/Julius Rudel Conducting Fellowship, the Kurt Weill Prize for scholarship in music theater, and publishes the Kurt Weill Edition and the Kurt Weill Newsletter. Building upon the legacies of both Weill and Lenya, the Foundation nurtures talent, particularly in the creation, performance, and study of musical theater in its various manifestations and media. Since 2012, the Kurt Weill Foundation has administered the musical and literary estate of composer Marc Blitzstein. Learn more.

The National Orchestral Institute + Festival is also supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Nicolae Bretan Music Foundation and The Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation.