2025-2026 Season Concert Series
The Program
Jessie Montgomery Starburst for string orchestra
Florence Price Symphony No. 1
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Please join us before the concert for the Inside the Music talk at 1:45 PM.
program run time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Full of color and contrast, our winter concert program features three modern composers whose works capture America’s many voices. Composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery’s brief one-movement Starburst for string orchestra is a multi-dimensional soundscape of instrumental colors. In her groundbreaking Symphony No. 1, Florence Price, a Black female composer who graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1903, blends romantic influences with sounds and rhythms derived from slave music and jazz. The program culminates with George Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue, a musical kaleidoscope of America’s vast melting pot, featuring Seacoast-based Mike Effenberger on piano.
Featured Artists
Mike Effenberger, piano soloist for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
What Makes This Concert Special?
- Spans nearly a century of American sound in one program: from Florence Price’s early-20th-century symphonic voice, to Gershwin’s jazz-infused modernism, to Montgomery’s living, contemporary perspective. You’re hearing where American music came from and where it’s still going.
- Price was the first Black woman to have a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra, yet her music was overlooked for decades. Symphony No. 1 is lush, powerful, and unmistakably American, weaving classical tradition with spirituals, folk rhythms, and jazz-inflected energy.
- Montgomery’s Starburst is a one-movement opener that explodes with texture and momentum, like stepping into a prism of sound.
- Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is bold, familiar, and thrilling – blurring the line between classical concert hall and jazz club. You might remember Rhapsody in Blue from Disney’s Fantasia 2000. Seacoast local Mike Effenberger will be our pianist at the helm.
What You'll Hear
Take a Closer Look
- Dive deeper and view the full digital program
- Seacoast Jazz interview with Mike Effenberger
- The Life and Music of Florence Price – an Interview with Rae Linda Brown
- An Unlikely Discovery
- I Care If You Listen: Jessie Montgomery
- From The Top: Jessie Montgomery (podcast)
- Rhapsody In Blue: After a Century, Gershwin’s musical melting pot still resonates
- Gershwin: Why his music was the soundtrack to the optimistic world
The Details
- The concert will last approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes including a 15 minute intermission.
- Join us at 1:45 PM for a pre-concert talk by Music Director John Page.
- We recommend arriving 30 minutes in advance to allow ample time for parking and finding a seat.
- Is this your first time joining us? Welcome! Visit our Before You Arrive page to learn more!
