This concert is presented during Blue Black, a meditation on the colors blue and black by artist and curator Glenn Ligon. Inspired by a work on view, the performance will feature Steve Reich’s influential composition Come Out from 1966. Commissioned by civil rights activist Truman Nelson, Reich’s piece quotes the testimony given by Daniel Hamm, one among a group of young residents of Harlem who were wrongfully accused of a crime in 1960’s. Referencing Reich’s Come Out and incorporating text from Hamm’s testimony, Ligon created a monumental neon work, A Small Band (2015), constructed of the words “blues,” “blood,” and “bruise,” which is currently on view in the Main Gallery.

The 2017-2018 season of St. Louis Symphony Live at the Pulitzer will be led by co-artistic directors Peter Henderson, pianist and faculty member at St. Louis’ Maryville University, and Gemma New, Resident Conductor at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. The October 4th performance will be directed by Henderson.

 

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN
Klavierstück IX (1954-55, rev. 1961)

STEVE REICH
Come Out (1966)

MICHAEL JOHANSON
Rhapsody (1998)

JULIUS EASTMAN
Second Movement from Piano 2 (1986)

FRED ONOVWEROSUOKE
Five Kaleidoscopes (2013)