Pianist Jake Kinney performs Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

The Concord Band opens its 2024–25 season with a concert on Saturday, October 26, 7:00 pm at the 51 Walden Performing Arts Center. Music Director James O’Dell chose the theme “100th Anniversaries” in recognition of Geoge Gershwin’s composition and premiere of Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, a year that marks many musical milestones.

The program commemorates the passing of composer Giacomo Puccini, the most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, and Gabriel Fauré, one of the foremost French composers of his generation. The program also features Camille Saint-Saëns’ Pas Redouble, arranged for band by Arthur Frackenpohl, as well as Academy Award winning themes by Henry Mancini, considered one of the greatest composers in the history of film, in an arrangement by Warren Barker. Both Frackenpohl and Mancini were born in 1924.

Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue in a few short weeks for a concert by Paul Whiteman’s Palais Royal Orchestra, titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” presented at Aeolean Hall in New York City in February of 1924. Whiteman’s intent was to show that American jazz could be combined with classical and other types of music. The original score by Ferde Grofe comprised 23 instruments and piano solo. Subsequently, Thomas Verrier expanded the original setting to concert band instrumentation based on Grofe’s manuscripts.

Pianist Jake Kinney is the featured soloist on Rhapsody in Blue. Kinney is a versatile musician, performing with the Concord Band on trumpet, with the Jazz Ensemble on piano, as well as leading the Holiday Pops sing-along on vocals.

Admission to the Concord Band’s Fall Concert is free, with a requested donation of $20 per person. A reception will follow the concert.