Rhapsody in Blue

Saturday October 6, 2018 | 7:30pm
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza

Sunday October 7, 2018 | 3:00pm
Oxnard Performing Arts Center

The New West Symphony opens its 24th season with a 120th birthday salute to George Gershwin. Rhapsody in Blue, composed at the height of the Jazz Age, was Gershwin’s attempt at fusing classical music with jazz. Pianist Kevin Cole makes his New West Symphony debut with this beloved work. Opera star turned chanteuse, Sylvia McNair, brings her inimitable stylings to the Gershwin Songbook in her New West Symphony debut. Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy suite from the ballet Fancy Free is a hat-tip for his 100th birthday year.  Darius Milhaud’s rollicking Le boeuf sur le toit pays homage to the venerable Parisian café that was the haunt of artists, writers and musicians during the Jazz Age.

Michael Christie, guest conductor
Sylvia McNair, soprano
Kevin Cole, piano

Bernstein | Suite from Ballet Fancy Free
Frost | Serenade for Strings
Gershwin | Rhapsody in Blue
Milhaud | Le boeuf sur le toit
Gershwin | Songbook selections
    The Man I Love – Strike up the Band
But Not For Me – Crazy For You
Summertime – Porgy and Bess
‘S Wonderful – Funny Face