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BBC SO/New

A portrait of Gemma New

Gemma New and the BBC SO explore the music of American composers and their students in this concert of groovy, glitzy and gregarious scores, from Copland and Bernstein to Adams and Kernis.

Aaron Copland’s celebration of an Appalachian wedding alternates joyous dancing with pregnant expectation, but his pupil Leonard Bernstein stuck to raucous energy for his dances from West Side Story. John Adams proves himself the smoothest of dance-floor operators in The Chairman Dances, while the new violin concerto by his former pupil Aaron Jay Kernis, written for James Ehnes, is a double Grammy Award-winning showpiece that becomes ever more manic as it powers up with thrilling virtuosity.

The performance will finish at approximately 9.15pm. It includes a 20 minute interval.

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an orchestra playing classical music in the barbican hall in central london

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Barbican Hall