A cathedral rises in sound. A new voice enters the room. A woman begins a story, knowing her life depends on every word.
Symphonic Stories brings together three works about memory, imagination, and the power of art to carry us through what force alone cannot.
Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral begins the journey in a place of remembrance. Higdon wrote the piece after the death of her younger brother, Andrew Blue Higdon, and shaped it as something more than a memorial. In her own notes, she imagined a vast sacred space: crystal pillars, stained glass, upward motion, and a ceiling opening to the sky. The music places special emphasis on the flute, Higdon’s instrument, and the clarinet, her brother’s, creating the sense of two voices moving through grief, memory, and release.
From there, Auburn Symphony looks forward. In honor of the orchestra’s 30th anniversary, the program features the premiere of a new saxophone concerto by Viet Cuong, performed by Timothy McAllister. Cuong’s music has been called “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, and his work has reached orchestras and ensembles across six continents. McAllister, described as today’s most celebrated classical saxophonist, has premiered hundreds of new works and helped expand what the saxophone can say on the concert stage.
The journey ends with one of music’s great storytellers. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade draws from One Thousand and One Nights, where Scheherazade survives a brutal ruler by telling stories so compelling he lets her live another day to hear what happens next. The music gives her a voice through the solo violin: winding, brilliant, persuasive, and unbroken. The Los Angeles Philharmonic notes the recurring contrast between the Sultan’s forceful theme and Scheherazade’s sinuous violin theme, which returns at the end in a gentle epilogue.
With remembrance, innovation, and resilience woven through every work, Symphonic Stories celebrates the art of survival through sound: the stories we inherit, the stories we create, and the stories that keep us alive.
Program
Jennifer HIGDON - blue cathedral
Viet CUONG - Saxophone Concerto
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV - Scheherazade, Op. 35
Guest Artist
Timothy McAllister, saxophone