Our season concludes with three iconic compositions and two orchestral world premieres. The program opens with Bernstein’s toe-tapping Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, a comedic Broadway hit filled with dance, sentimentality, and lightheartedness. The musical spirit of America continues with Copland’s emblematic and patriotic Appalachian Spring: Suite, which blooms with optimism and brims with the tender promise of new life. Starting with its idiosyncratic clarinet glissando, Gershwin’s jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue swings and sweeps listeners into a different American soundscape where an improvisational-sounding piano line takes the center of this Jazz-age stage. These quintessential American pieces are paired with two works rooted in our own Western New York. Michael Daugherty’s Niagara Falls is a musical journey through one of the world’s great scenic wonders, while Buffalo-born Paul Moravec’s Serenade—inspired by the Great Western Staircase at the New York State Capitol, a marvel of intricate sculpture and history—offers a stirring narrative of ascent and aspiration. This closing concert provides a rich musical portrait of America—both past and present—bound to inspire listeners to appreciate the musical and natural beauty surrounding them.

Program

JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Jon Kimura Parker, piano

BERNSTEIN  Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
I. The Great Lover
II. Lonely Town (Pas de Deux)
III. Times Square, 1944

MICHAEL DAUGHERTY  Niagara Falls for orchestra (Orchestral World Premiere)

COPLAND  Suite from Appalachian Spring (1945 orchestration)

INTERMISSION

PAUL MORAVEC  Serenade (Orchestral World Premiere)

GERSHWIN / orch. Grofé Rhapsody in Blue

About Jon Kimura Parker

“Mr. Parker was an insightful, energetic soloist…the audience roared in approval.” –The New York Times

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is known for his charisma, infectious enthusiasm, and dynamic performances that communicate the joy of musical expression. A veteran of the international concert stage, he has performed in the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House, and the Beijing Concert Hall. He is Creative Partner for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Summer at Orchestra Hall, serves as the Artistic Director for the Honens International Piano Competition and Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and chairs the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

In recent concert seasons, Jon Kimura Parker has been conducted by Karina Canellakis, Karen Kamensek, Mei-Ann Chen, Stephanie Childress, and Lina Gonzalez-Granados. A collaborator in a wide variety of styles, Jon Kimura Parker has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin, Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham, and Lynn Harrell, and also with Doc Severinsen, Audra McDonald, Bobby McFerrin, Shayne Koyczan, and Dessa. He has toured as a founding member of the Montrose Trio, and in Off the Score with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland, featuring his own arrangements of music by Prokofiev, Ravel, and Stravinsky.

Highlights of the 2025-26 season include performances with Chamber Music International, Chamber Music Tulsa, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Fresno Philharmonic, Meany Center for the Performing Arts, Pro Musica, the Richardson Symphony, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and Willamette University’s Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series.

Jon Kimura Parker studied with Edward Parker and Keiko Parker, Lee Kum-Sing at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the University of British Columbia, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre, and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School. After winning the Gold Medal at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, Parker has gone on to become an Officer of the Order of Canada and to receive Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.

Known to friends as “Jackie,” Parker is married to violinist/violist Aloysia Friedmann, and their daughter Sophie is an artist.

For further information, please visit jonkimuraparker.com.

This performance is made possible by
the Michal and Jim Wadsworth Concert Endowment
and sponsored by

The Classics Series is presented by

The Coffee Concert Series is presented by

This concert is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.