The Dream of America

Location: Mount Baker Theatre

Address: 104 Commercial Street Bellingham WA, 98225

Contact Email: marketing@bellinghamsymphony.org

Website: Event Link

Date: Sunday May 5, 2024

Time: 03:00 pm - 04:30 pm

Organizer: Bellingham Symphony Orchestra

Program:

Arturo Márquez | Conga del Fuego
Tan Dun | Crouching Tiger Concerto
Peter Boyer | Ellis Island: The Dream of America

Join the orchestra and cellist Meeka Quan DiLorenzo for a powerful afternoon!
First, we’re celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Mexican composer Arturo Márquez’s Conga del Fuego. Composed in 2005, this quick 3-minute piece translates as “Conga of Fire” and is a pulsating, joyous burst of dance.
Next, cellist Meeka Quan DiLorenzo joins the orchestra for contemporary Chinese American composer Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto from the iconic Ang Lee film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon earned Tan an Academy Award and a Grammy.

Lastly, we are honored to present contemporary composer Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America. Premiered in 2002, the work has gone on to become one of the most performed American classical orchestral works composed in the last 20 years. Ellis Island provides a glimpse into the American Dream as experienced by American immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. The work features several narrators performing spoken texts from the Ellis Island Oral History Project which are interwoven with the music. A recording of Ellis Island was featured on PBS’ Great Performances series in 2018.