MSO plays music of Copland and Gershwin

Music by John Williams, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland opens the Modesto Symphony Orchestra’s 87th Classics Season.

Violinist Nick Kendall, a member of the classically trained string trio Time for Three, will perform Gershwin’s “Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra on Porgy and Bess” for the program.

The concert will be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10-11, at the Gallo Center for the Arts. The Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra also will be part of the program, and the MSYO’s new season also begins on Saturday.

The Copland and Gershwin program is “devoted to the common elements that make us all American,” according the MSO; other pieces played will be Williams’ “Hymn to the Fallen” – part of the Grammy-winning soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s World War II film “Saving Private Ryan” – and Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”

Kendall began violin at the age of 3 and took to the streets of Washington, D.C., as a teenager to play for lunch money. A couple of years later, he was forming rock bands at Curtis Institute and debuting at concert halls around the world.

“Nick’s leadership comes from a long personal history with collective action,” according to the MSO. “Years ago, Nick gathered his friends to form a band whose direction and energy stems out of the power of cooperation, now the critically acclaimed East Coast Chamber Orchestra.”

His “genre-bending trio,” Time for Three reaches audiences who otherwise might not participate in the performing arts, according to the MSO. A 2014 PBS show “Time for Three LIVE!” won an Emmy Award.

“Nick is one of our generation’s most persuasive champions for bringing new audiences to concert halls. Irreverent, funny, and relentless, Nick has become a force for connecting people through music, on stage and off. His work is based on the simple idea that the energy you exude greatly impacts the relationships you build,” according to the MSO.

This story was originally published November 9, 2017 at 11:08 AM with the headline "MSO plays music of Copland and Gershwin."