Season 70 Opens with an Evening of All Gershwin!

Featuring leading Gershwin interpreter, Pianist Kevin Cole, and internationally renowned and Grammy® Award-winning Soprano Sylvia McNair, Opening Night features an evening of music by American icon George Gershwin, including his jazz-inspired Rhapsody in Blue for its 100th anniversary. Celebrate 70 years of the Helena Symphony’s music-making with Gershwin, world-renowned artists, dinner, drinks, the Opening Night After Party, and your Helena Symphony Orchestra!

Masterworks I: Gershwin & 100 Years of Rhapsody in Blue is sponsored by AARP Montana, The Physicians Partners of the St. Peter’s Health Foundation, Jacoby Insurance, and Anderson Hedge Wagner Kienitz Zwemke & Associates at Merrill!

SYLVIA MCNAIR

Two-time GRAMMY® Award winner and regional Emmy Award winner, Sylvia McNair lays claim to a stellar career in the musical realms of opera, oratorio, art song, jazz, cabaret, and musical theater. She is recognized as one of the most sought-after American artists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Her journey has taken her from the Metropolitan Opera to the Salzburg Festival, from the New York Philharmonic to the Rainbow Room, from the Ravinia Festival to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, from the pages of The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to the London Times and the cover of Cabaret Scenes. Having appeared as a soloist multiple times, sometimes more than once per season, with nearly every major opera company and symphony orchestra in the world, this songbird eventually flew the classical coop and successfully retraced her star route with Gershwin, Porter, Hamlisch, Bernstein, and Sondheim.

Ms. McNair has recorded for every major classical record label, garnering two GRAMMY® awards and six GRAMMY® nominations. Her recording, ROMANCE, a disc of Latin American jazz standards was released to rave review. A review of her performance with Marvin Hamlisch and the Milwaukee Symphony exclaimed:

“…she is that rare opera type who really gets the popular song. She reined in the vibrato and played to the microphone perfectly. Her matchless enunciation not only delivered the words and their sentiments, but also helped to etch the rhythms. Her wonderfully pure Summertime, purged of all diva carrying-on, is among the best I’ve ever heard.” (Third Coast Digest)

KEVIN COLE

Pianist Kevin Cole has performed with over 100 orchestras worldwide including sold out performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, and the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. He is regarded as the foremost interpreter of George Gershwin’s piano compositions and the first pianist to play all four of Gershwin’s works for piano and orchestra in one concert (Albany Symphony).

An award-winning musical director, arranger, composer, vocalist, archivist, recording artist, and producer, Mr. Cole has garnered the praises of some of America’s greatest songwriters: Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, Hugh Martin, Burton Lane, Marvin Hamlisch, Stephen Sondheim, and members of the Jerome Kern and Gershwin families. He has collaborated with Marvin Hamlisch, opened for Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band, shared a concert evening with Broadway musical legend Barbara Cook, toured with Grammy-winning soprano Sylvia McNair, performed at the invitation of

the prestigious Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and served as Artistic Director for Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute Musical Theatre Initiative.

GERSHWIN’S RHAPSODY IN BLUE

Bandleader Paul Whiteman commissioned George Gershwin to write a “jazz concerto” to be included in a concert titled An Experiment in Modern Music in New York on February 12, 1924. With Gershwin performing the solo piano part, Rhapsody in Blue was an enormous success. Everyone who was anyone in the music world attended the concert, such as virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz, and composers Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky. All but Stravinsky loved the work immediately.

“A rhapsody differs from a concerto in that it features one extended movement instead of the conventional three movements,” says Maestro Allan R. Scott. “Rhapsodies also often incorporate passages of improvisation and are irregular in form, with heightened contrasts and emotional exuberance. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is typical in that it certainly has large contrasts in musical texture, style, and color. The work ranges from intensely rhythmic piano solos to slow, broad, and lush orchestral sections.”

Because Gershwin had only composed songs with piano scores until the Rhapsody commission, he was very hesitant to take on the project as he would have to write a full score. So, Whiteman offered the services of his arranger, Ferde Grofé, to help Gershwin with the orchestration.

Rhapsody in Blue became the Whiteman Orchestra’s signature tune. More importantly, at a time when classical music was still an overwhelmingly European art form, it introduced a uniquely American voice in a classical concert. While the age-old European classical music drew on national folk and popular music, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue began the infusion of American popular music into the classical tradition. More than the success of the work itself, Rhapsody in Blue legitimized jazz as a serious form of music, and soon classical composers were attempting to write “serious” music using jazz idioms.

OPENING NIGHT AFTER PARTY FUNDRAISER

The Helena Symphony celebrates 70 years of symphonic music in the Helena community with the highlight event of 2024 – the Opening Night After Party! The Opening Night After Party fundraiser will be a joyous and vibrant celebration complete with exquisite catered cuisine, cocktails, and a thrilling live and silent auction. We have moved the concert to 5:30 p.m. to make way for the celebration – join us at 7:30 p.m.!

Join the Helena Symphony at the Helena Civic Center Ballroom immediately following Masterworks I: Gershwin & 100 Years of Rhapsody in Blue on September 14th for the Opening Night After Party. Tickets are on sale now on the Helena Symphony website or by calling the Symphony office at 406.442.1860. Single tickets are $70, a table of 8 is $525, and a table of 10 is $650.

MASTERWORKS SERIES PRESENTED BY AARP MONTANA

The Helena Symphony is elated to announce we will continue our partnership with AARP to bring exceptional symphonic music to thousands across western Montana. As the Masterworks Series presented by AARP Montana, this continued collaboration will support audiences within the concert hall, bringing the highest quality symphonic performances and guest artists to Helena. The Helena Symphony is grateful for the generosity of the whole AARP Montana team!

Season subscriptions for the Helena Symphony Masterworks Concert Series presented by AARP Montana are available for purchase. In addition to the substantial discounts on season tickets, subscribers also receive the new Bring A Friend Pass, The Art of Listening Newsletter, first access to Non-Series Concerts, and several other benefits. Single concert tickets ($20- $60 plus a $5 transaction fee) can also be purchased online at www.helenasymphony.org, by calling the Symphony Box Office (406.442.1860), or visiting the Symphony Box Office located on the Walking Mall at the Placer Building (21 N. Last Chance Gulch, Suite 100) between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets for the remaining Non-Series Concerts, Mozart by Candlelight and Christmas in the Cathedral, go on sale to the public on Monday, September 16.

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See below for Season concert listing.
Maestro Scott, guest artists, and Director of Patron Services Scott Kall are available for interviews by contacting the Symphony at 406.442.1860 or [email protected]