The New Millennium Chamber Orchestra concludes its 11th Concert Season this April with “American Landscapes“, a journey through music inspired by the urban and natural landscapes of the United States.

Saturday evening’s program on April 27th is at 7 PM in San Mateo’s Transfiguration Episcopal Church. The Sunday afternoon concert on April 28th starts at 4:00 PM at the First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto.

From the Bay Area’s own Mason Bates, composer of the GRAMMY-winning opera “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” we are thrilled to present “Rusty Air in Carolina,” a fantastic and imaginative blend of orchestra and “electronica” evocative of the passing of time through a summer’s evening in the South.

Since its inception, NMCO has been honored to perform various works by the late Nancy Bloomer Deussen on our programs. This local composer’s “Peninsula Suite,” a work for string orchestra in the classical style, paints a lyrical picture of our own local environment.

Victoria Bond’s celebrated “Bridges” is a symphonic journey around, under and across five different structures from the Brooklyn Bridge to our own Golden Gate. Each movement has its own distinct harmonic and rhythmic palette.

In 1935, the United States Department of Agriculture commissioned composer Virgil Thomson and filmmaker Pare Lorentz to create “The Plow That Broke the Plains,” a motion picture charting the agricultural destruction of the Great Plains. This deeply affecting and lovely suite of music from the film resonates with the impact of climate change today.

And finally, NMCO will return to a cherished work, Samuel Barber‘s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.” Our performance of this moving work will feature English soprano Margaret Lingas, who has performed with the Tallis Scholars, Cappella Romana, Ex Cathedra, and the Magdalen College Consort of Voices.

We’re delighted to conclude our 11th season with this evocative program of works inspired by the American landscape, and we look forward to presenting it to you in San Mateo and Palo Alto! Mark your calendars now and get your tickets for the New Millennium Chamber Orchestra’s “American Landscapes” performances on April 27 and 28!