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  • 8425 Peach Street
  • Erie, PA, 16509
  • United States

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Fascinating Spaces

Thursday, May 26 · 8:00pm

Daniel Meyer music director
Stewart Goodyear piano
Eddie Pleasant baritone
Beth Etter piano
Eri Snowden-Rodriguez cello
Erie Philharmonic Youth Chorale
Sharon Downey director

Program to include music from:
Duke Ellington Black, Brown and Beige Suite
Adolphus Hailstork Piano Concerto
William Grant Still Symphony No. 1 ‘Afro-American’
and more!

In this episode we explore how jazz, the blues, work songs and spirituals have blended with European classical tradition to create a uniquely American voice in the concert hall. African American composers Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, and Adolphus Hailstork are featured, with sensational Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear joining the Philharmonic in his Erie debut. We will also explore the life of our own hometown musical hero, Harry T. Burleigh, and trace some of the important spaces in which he launched his life in music.

Stewart Goodyear, Piano

Proclaimed "a phenomenon" by the Los Angeles Times and "one of the best pianists of his generation" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.

Last year, Orchid Classics released Mr. Goodyear's recording of his suite for piano and orchestra, "Callaloo" and his piano sonata. His recent commissions include a Piano Quintet for the Penderecki String Quartet, and a piano work for the Honens Piano Competition.

Mr. Goodyear's discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Rachmaninov, an album of Ravel piano works, and an album, entitled "For Glenn Gould", which combines repertoire from Mr. Gould's US and Montreal debuts. His Rachmaninov recording received a Juno nomination for Best Classical Album for Soloist and Large Ensemble Accompaniment. Mr. Goodyear's recording of his own transcription of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker (Complete Ballet)", was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best classical music recordings of 2015. His discography is released on the Marquis Classics, Orchid Classics, and Steinway and Sons labels. His new album, entitled "Phoenix", will be released on the Bright Shiny Things label in October 2021, and will include Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Highlights for the 2021-22 season is his first performance at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, return engagements at the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Ladies Morning Musical Club (Montreal, Canada), l'Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Vancouver and Indianapolis Symphonies, and his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC).