American Landscapes: Ives, Ravel, Still, Songs by Gottschalk, Ives & Burleigh

This year, in its 8th Season, the Valley of the Moon Music Festival presents chamber and vocal music inspired by nature and the elements. This program explores the distinctive voices of 20th-century American composers from Gottschalk to Ives to Burleigh. Included is a movement from a violin sonata by the French composer Maurice Ravel, who was under the spell of the blues and jazz emerging across the Atlantic. The concert ends with the rollicking Suite for Violin and Piano by William Grant Still, composer, conductor and arranger of the Harlem Renaissance and the first American composer to be produced by the New York City Opera.