American Beauty

The Santa Barbara Symphony presents a unique line-up highlighting the works of African American composers and their influence.

In this program, listeners will experience the impact American music, like jazz, had upon Europe’s classical composers. The night begins with a special presentation of Symphony No. 1, by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Rarely performed in the U.S., Chevalier de Saint-Georges one of the first known classical composer of African ancestry. Next up is George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, one of the most frequently performed orchestral works by an American composer. Walker was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, “a magnificent, densely textured setting of the poetry of Walt Whitman.”