Music director Troy Peters leads the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio in the Texas premiere of Nocturne for Piano and Strings with soloist Thomas Steigerwald at the H-E-B Performance Hall.

ABOUT THE PIECE

Commissioned by the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York City, the Nocturne was completed on 20 March 2000 in New York City. It is a heavily-revised, final version of Hagen's Romance for Piano and Orchestra (1991) which he premiered on 5 April 1991 as piano soloist with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Leon Botstein conducting. Hagen withdrew the Romance immediately after the premiere and set it aside for revisions.  The resulting work is scored for either string quintet (string quartet, plus a contrabass) or string orchestra, and consists of a number of, in the composer's words, 'nocturnal variations' based on a tune given at the outset by the piano.

Learn more about the piece here.

ABOUT THE CONCERT

The YOSA Philharmonic marks the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth with irresistible rhythms and memorable tunes from the ballet Fancy Free and the musical West Side Story, plus beautiful music by his friend Ned Rorem and his protégé Daron Hagen. Cosmé McMoon, who grew up in San Antonio, achieved fame in 1930s New York as piano accompanist for the legendary diva Florence Foster Jenkins, and YOSA will present the world premiere of his colorful Rondo Espagnol, nearly 80 years after he wrote it.

Learn more about the concert here.