Conductor Ruth Reinhardt and saxophonist Steven Banks, a 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, will make their debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra to showcase Billy Childs’ recently premiered “Diaspora” (Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra).
Composed in 2022 on a commission from a consortium of nine orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, “Diaspora” is a symphonic poem in three movements that highlights Black experiences in America. Inspired by the poetry of Nayyirah Waheed, Claude McKay and Maya Angelou, among others, the concerto represents a journey through African American histories and aesthetics through an instrument that is not typically heard in a symphony orchestra. Childs composed “Diaspora” for Banks, who is in the midst of touring the concerto nationally; its world premiere was given by the Kansas City Symphony in February 2023 under Reinhardt’s baton.
The program will take place at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis on Friday, February 9, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, February 10, at 7 p.m., with ticket prices ranging from $31 to $106. Free tickets for both programs are available to young listeners ages 6 to 18 thanks to the Orchestra’s Hall Pass program. Choose Your Price tickets are available to concertgoers for select seating sections ($10 minimum ticket price) for the February 10 program.
The concert on February 9 will be broadcast live on stations of YourClassical Minnesota Public Radio. Additionally, it will be broadcast live on Twin Cities PBS (TPT-2), and streamed for free through the Orchestra’s website and social media channels. The broadcast will subsequently be released for on-demand viewing with a digital subscription to the Orchestra’s Digital Concert Hall.
The evening concerts open with another symphonic poem, this one of Bedřich Smetana. Inspired by the landscapes, legends and history of his native Bohemia, Smetana wrote a cycle of a half-dozen symphonic poems collectively known as Má vlast (My Homeland) between 1874-75. In this program, Reinhardt has selected Šárka, one of the cycle’s lesser-known movements, for the Orchestra to perform. The miniature orchestral drama is based on the tale of the legendary Amazon of Bohemian folklore, telling of the heroine Šárka and her romantic betrayal, rage and vengeance.
A suite from Sergei Prokofiev’s gripping ballet score “Romeo and Juliet” comprises the second half of the program. Composed in 1938, Prokofiev’s massive score was deemed “undanceable” by the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow before the company backed out of the project. The suite from “Romeo and Juliet” to be performed in this program was compiled by Reinhardt herself; the eight movements she has chosen are nonchronological and conjure the vivid images of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy. Reinhardt’s arrangement begins with “The Montagues and the Capulets,” one of the most famous and powerful excerpts from the ballet.
