Masterworks
Masterworks: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
P.E. Monroe Auditorium, LRU 775 6th St NE, Hickory, NC, United StatesA program of classical music's “The Three Bs” - a Baroque power play of three on three, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, the doubly demanding Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello featuring Misha Keylin, violin, and WPS principal cellist Samuel Magill, and the unforgettable first four notes tell you it's Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
Masterworks: The Rite of Spring
P.E. Monroe Auditorium, LRU 775 6th St NE, Hickory, NC, United StatesCelebrate the artistic breadth and depth of the sensational The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky's ground-breaking 1913 work for orchestra. Other related works on the program include Debussy's Syrinx (1913), the unforgettable music from Psycho by American film composer Bernard Herrmann, and Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.
Masterworks: Symphony Swings
P.E. Monroe Auditorium, LRU 775 6th St NE, Hickory, NC, United StatesA night of classic American jazz music featuring one of the greatest clarinetists alive, known as the Louis Armstrong of the clarinet, Doreen Ketchens, performing jazz swing music with the Western Piedmont Symphony. Other works include Soul Force by award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery, Bernstein's On the Town: Three Dance Episodes, and Ellington's Black, Brown, and Beige Suite.
Masterworks: Mozart and the Mandolin
P.E. Monroe Auditorium, LRU 775 6th St NE, Hickory, NC, United StatesSeason finale Masterworks concert featuring mandolin artist Jeff Midkiff performing his From the Blue Ridge concerto. Concert includes Rossini's Overture to La gazza Ladra and Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.
NEW DATE-Masterworks: Rhapsody in Blue
P.E. Monroe Auditorium, LRU 775 6th St NE, Hickory, NC, United StatesNEW DATE: Masterworks: Rhapsody in Blue will be Saturday, June 7, 2025.Due to the effects of Hurricane Helene upon our community and the greater Western North Carolina region, we have made the decision to postpone the October 12 Masterworks: Rhapsody in Blue concert.
Celebrating the centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, pianist Jeffrey Biegel and composer Peter Boyer launched the Rhapsody National Initiative with Rhapsody in Red, White, & Blue, a vibrant new work reflecting the American landscape, with the pulse, energy, and beauty of our shared identity as Americans. Western Piedmont Symphony is the only orchestra in North Carolina represented in this national symphonic project. Also on the program is the celebrated masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue, the lyrical and vivid Symphony No. 1 by living composer Adolphus Hailstork, and the mesmerizing Bolero by Ravel.