SOUNDS OF AMERICA
Caroline Shaw | Entr’acte
Bernstein | West Side Story Selections
Copland | Symphony No. 3

Like the February 21 concert, the ECSO’s season closer will look ahead to the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. Born in 1982 in Greenville, North Carolina, Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw wrote Entr’acte in 2011 for string quartet; this arrangement for string orchestra followed in 2014. Singing well-loved selections from the 1957 musical West Side Story—with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim—will be [TBD].
Following intermission, Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada will lead the orchestra in a performance of Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3, premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1946. The composer’s powerful and inspiring “Fanfare for the Common Man” is hinted at in the first three movements, becoming a key theme in the fourth. Copland was 18 years older than Bernstein, a high-profile promoter of his friend’s music as a reflection of the American spirit.