2026-2027 Season
250 Years of America
Celebrate America at 250 with an evening of music that captures the energy, spirit, and many voices of the American experience.
From the stirring opening call of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man to the irresistible exuberance of Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever, this program travels through a distinctly American musical landscape.
Along the way, you’ll hear the open-hearted simplicity and rhythmic vitality of Copland, the sweeping drama of Richard Rodgers’ Victory at Sea, the patriotic brilliance of Morton Gould’s American Salute, and the rich Romanticism of George Whitefield Chadwick’s Symphony No. 3.
Arrive early for a special pre-concert performance by RCO’s principal strings featuring chamber music by Chadwick—a more intimate introduction to one of America’s important early orchestral voices.
Bold, lyrical, nostalgic, and unmistakably American, this is a celebration 250 years in the making.
Program
Aaron Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland – Hoedown, from the ballet, Rodeo
Aaron Copland – Variations on a Shaker Melody, from Appalachian Spring
Richard Rogers – Victory at Sea
Morton Gould – American Salute
George Chadwick – Symphony #3
John Phillip Sousa – Stars and Stripes Forever