Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra's concert to highlight famous compositions inspired by an early America

On Saturday, March 11, the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra will present "To A New World," featuring classic works by Coleridge-Taylor, Dvorák, and Tchaikovsky, with guest musicians cellist Jean Hatmaker and violinist Isabel Chen, the 2021 Stanger Young Artist Competition winner.

The concert, led by music director Stephen Alltop, will begin at 7 p.m. at Elmhurst Symphony's home venue, Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church, 149 W. Brush Hill Road.

The popular preconcert lecture with Ted Hatmaker is back for this concert and will begin at 5:45 p.m.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a British descendant of freed African-American slaves, was greatly inspired by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic "The Song of Hiawatha" and chose to set the poem to music in what became one of the composer's most well-known pieces.

Coleridge-Taylor's "The Song of Hiawatha" became so popular in Britain in the early 20th century that it rivaled George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" and Felix Mendelssohn's "Elijah."

This concert features Isabel Chen, winner of the 2021 Stanger Competition, in a performance of Czech composer Antonín Dvorák's Violin Concerto - I. Allegro ma non troppo.

The Dvorák Violin Concerto received its first U.S. performance in Chicago, just down the road at the Auditorium Theatre in 1891.

Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" was written while the composer worked and toured the United States in 1893 - it was completed, in fact, in Spillville, Iowa. Inspired by African-American spirituals like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and Native American music, Dvorák commented: "The future music of (the United States) must be founded on what are called (Black) melodies … They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them."

In addition to the symphony, the concert program will feature Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Pezzo capriccioso,

General admission tickets for $35 and discounted tickets for students and seniors are available online at ElmhurstSymphony.org/event/to-a-new-world.

This concert is generously sponsored by Scott and Charity Ahlgrim in memory of Arthur and Arlene Ahlgrim.