November 9, 2010

American Century Music’s first concert in Washington DC is fast approaching! ACM’s concert is part of the musical offerings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in tandem with their exhibition, Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

I visited DC this past week and saw the exhibition, which is beautifully presented.

ACM’s concert was designed to make a musical connection between Rockwell’s populism (and popularity) with some of the traits that we associate with his work: humor, nostalgia, sentimentality, and wholesomeness.

Each of the pieces on the program captures some part of these characteristics, be it Piston’s jollity in the Divertimento or Amy Beach’s sincere sentimentality in her Piano Trio, op. 150.  The concert culminates with Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, the most well-known and symbolic piece of American art music representing the country’s ideals of optimism, hope, and honesty.

It will be a beautiful afternoon of American culture.

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