Greenville Symphony

Event Guide

Table of Contents

Program

Artist Biographies

Program Notes

West Side Story Symphonic Dances + Fanfare for the Common Man

April 11, 2026 at 730pm | March 12, 2026 at 3pm

Program

John Sadak | Clarinet
Harriet and Jerry Dempsey Endowed Chair
Soloist John Sadak is sponsored by

Aaron Copland (1900 -1990)
Fanfare for the Common Man

Jessica Meyer (b. 1974)
Turbulent Flames

Copland
Clarinet Concerto
Slowly and expressively
Rather fast

First half 29 minutes

INTERMISSION

Carlos Simon (b. 1986)
Four Black American Dances
I. Ring Shout
II. Waltz
III. Tap!
IV. Holy Dance

Leonard Bernstein (1918 -1990)
West Side Story: Symphonic Dances
I. Prologue
II. "Somewhere"
III. Scherzo
IV. Mambo
V. Cha Cha
VI. Meeting Scene
VII. "Cool" Fugue
VIII. Rumble
IX. Finale

Second half 39 minutes

Artist Biographies

John Sadak

Clarinet

Jessica Meyer

Program Notes

Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (1942) is one of the most iconic works in American music, embodying strength, dignity, and democratic ideals. Scored for brass and percussion, its broad, open intervals and spacious rhythms create a sense of grandeur without excess.

Written during World War II, the fanfare honors ordinary citizens whose daily sacrifices supported the war effort. Copland avoids bombast, favoring noble simplicity and clarity, allowing the music to feel inclusive rather than ceremonial.

The result is a powerful sonic emblem of resilience and shared purpose that has come to symbolize American optimism and resolve.

Turbulent Flames (South Carolina premiere)
Jessica Meyer (born 1974)

Jessica Meyer’s Turbulent Flames is a vivid, high-energy work that showcases the composer’s distinctive blend of rhythmic drive, raw expression, and structural clarity. Drawing on the physical intensity of string playing, the piece surges with restless motion, sharp contrasts, and propulsive momentum.

Jagged gestures and volatile textures suggest instability and emotional urgency, while moments of fragile lyricism briefly surface before being overtaken by renewed force. Meyer’s music often emphasizes embodiment and motion, and Turbulent Flames feels almost kinetic, as if shaped by breath and muscle. The result is a gripping contemporary work that balances ferocity with expressive depth.

Clarinet Concerto
Copland

Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto is one of the central works of the 20th-century clarinet repertoire. Written between 1947 and 1948 for the jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, the concerto reflects Copland’s gift for blending classical forms with distinctly American idioms.

Though conceived for a virtuoso performer, the piece favors lyrical expressiveness and rhythmic vitality over sheer display.

The concerto is cast in two contrasting movements played without pause. The first is spacious and contemplative, opening with a long, singing clarinet line that unfolds over transparent string harmonies.

Copland’s characteristic use of open intervals and gentle syncopation gives the music a feeling of calm expansiveness, allowing the soloist to explore the clarinet’s warm, flexible tone.

A brief cadenza-like passage bridges the two movements, gradually introducing sharper rhythms and percussive effects.

The second movement bursts forth with jazzy syncopation, Latin-tinged rhythms, and playful exchanges between soloist and ensemble. Here Copland nods to Goodman’s jazz background while maintaining a clear classical structure. The clarinet darts and dances, alternating between bluesy inflections and crisp articulation.

Throughout the concerto, Copland’s orchestration remains light and transparent, ensuring that the clarinet’s voice is always clearly projected. The work captures a uniquely American sound world — cool, optimistic, and rhythmically alive — while demanding both technical agility and stylistic versatility from the performer.

As a synthesis of jazz influence and concert-hall refinement, Copland’s Clarinet Concerto stands as a hallmark of mid-century American music and a testament to the composer’s inclusive musical vision.

Four Black American Dances
Carlos Simon (born 1986)

Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances (2023) is a vibrant orchestral work that celebrates Black social dance as both cultural expression and historical record. Each movement draws inspiration from a distinct dance tradition, tracing a lineage from the 19th Century to the present.

The opening evokes the juba, with buoyant rhythms and call-and-response gestures that recall communal celebration and resilience. A blues-inflected second movement leans into swagger and syncopation, while the third nods to the Cakewalk, blending elegance and satire through playful orchestral color. The final movement bursts with contemporary energy, propelled by driving grooves and bright textures that feel rooted in the concert hall yet alive with popular idioms.

Throughout, Simon’s language is accessible and richly rhythmic, balancing tuneful immediacy with sophisticated orchestration. Four Black American Dances affirms dance as a living archive, honoring the creativity, joy, and endurance of Black American culture while speaking directly to modern audiences.

Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” distills the explosive energy, lyricism, and social urgency of his landmark 1957 Broadway musical into a compact orchestral suite that has become a concert hall staple.

Arranged in 1960 by Bernstein with Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, the work captures the dramatic arc of West Side Story without voices or staging, relying instead on rhythm, color, and thematic recall to tell the story of love and conflict in New York City.

The suite opens with a jagged “Prologue,” where snapping rhythms and bristling brass evoke the simmering rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks. This tension melts into the “Somewhere” adagio, a radiant transformation of the show’s most hopeful melody. Here Bernstein stretches the tune into a broad symphonic meditation, its luminous strings and aching harmonies offering a vision of peace that the drama itself ultimately denies.

Dance rhythms dominate the central movements. The “Scherzo” suggests escape and freedom, originally underscoring a dreamlike scene outside the city; its fleet textures and skipping figures feel almost pastoral.

That lightness is shattered by the ferocious “Mambo,” a percussion-driven eruption of Latin rhythm and brass fanfares that remains one of the most electrifying passages in American orchestral music. Shouts, syncopation, and raw volume convey the volatility of the dance floor as a battleground.

In “Cha-Cha,” Bernstein pivots to sultry elegance, spotlighting the meeting of Tony and Maria through slinky rhythms and glowing instrumental solos. The suite then plunges into “Meeting Scene,” where fragments of earlier themes collide amid nervous tremolos and stabbing accents, mirroring the lovers’ perilous world. The grim “Cool” follows, built on tightly controlled jazz counterpoint that reflects the Jets’ attempt to restrain their anger.

The suite concludes with “Rumble” and a brief return of “Somewhere,” now fractured and subdued. Violence overwhelms lyricism, and the hopeful melody fades into ambiguity rather than triumph.

Throughout the Symphonic Dances, Bernstein fuses classical technique with jazz, Latin, and popular styles, demonstrating that Broadway music could achieve symphonic scope without losing its visceral punch. The result is a work that stands not only as a brilliant orchestral showpiece, but also as a powerful expression of mid-20th-century American life.

Paul Hyde, a longtime arts journalist, is an English instructor at Tri-County Technical College. He writes regularly for the Greenville Journal, the S.C. Daily Gazette, EarRelevant, ArtsATL, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Readers may write to him at paulhydeus@yahoo.com.