Hershey Felder's Aliyah Concerto

The Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Alan Heatherington welcome composer, performer and playwright, Hershey Felder, to the stage for its season-opening concert.  Mr. Felder will give the Chicago premiere of his acclaimed Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: ALIYAH, celebrating the creation of the state of Israel.  The movements of this concerto are entitled:  1939, 1945, and 1948.  “Out of the ashes of the holocaust, the state of Israel was born.”

Also on the program will be the US Premiere of Stanley Black’s Music of a People.  Drawn from the spectacular London recordings, these brilliant and beloved orchestrations of favorite Jewish melodies have never before been heard in the US in live performances.  The Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra will be joined by members of the Chicago Master Singers and the Kol Zimrah chorus.



Hershey Felder

Mr. Felder is known to audiences worldwide for his acclaimed theatrical productions “George Gershwin Alone,” “Monsieur Chopin” and “Beethoven As I Knew Him” and “Maestro: The Art of Leonard Bernstein.”  Combining his abilities as an actor and concert pianist, he has appeared in these works as well as in solo concerts in more than 4,000 performances worldwide.  Mr. Felder, Maestro Heatherington and Ars Viva recently collaborated in a new recording to be released soon entitled “An American Story” retelling the events of the last hours of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

Music of a People

Stanley Black (Solomon Schwartz, 1913- 2002) was an award-winning English composer, conductor, arranger and pianist whose contributions to the music industry are well documented by an extensive and impressive discography. Among his many brilliant achievements was a two-record set in the London Phase Four series: Music of a People and Spirit of a People. It is from these two anthologies that the music for these concerts is drawn.  Ars Viva Music Director, Alan Heatherington, discovered these discs soon after their initial release and has held the arrangements in highest esteem for the 45 years since they first appeared. In Heatherington's own words, "Our live performances of Stanley Black's arrangements, the first ever to be heard in the US, represent the fulfillment of a life-long dream. The music itself, both text and melody, has resonated deeply within my own soul; and the arrangements by Stanley Black are on a level of artistic genius rarely achieved in the music industry. We are indebted to his widow, Edna Black; to the BBC and to Chicago musician Steve Marcus for making the manuscripts available to us."

 

Program:

Sunday, September 25 • 3:00 p.m.

Monday, September 26 • 7:30 p.m.