Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue

On Sale July 1

Masterworks

Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue

Feb 22

Sunday

3 PM

Century II Concert Hall

featuring Jeffrey Biegel, Piano

This stirring concert is a celebration of American creativity with a patriotic blend of classical, jazz, and Broadway influences. We open with Charles Ives’s enigmatic The Unanswered Question, a work that floats in timeless stillness as it contemplates life’s eternal mysteries, and the premiere of Caprice by Boyd Eagle, a 20^th century Native American jazz musician and composer and grandfather of our very own Maestro Daniel Hege. The celebration continues with Peter Boyer’s Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue, a modern showpiece for piano and orchestra that pulses with patriotic spirit and cinematic grandeur. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel is performing Boyer’s contemporary Rhapsody in all 50 states, and this performance represents Kansas.

The energy surges in the second half with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, capturing the heartbeat of New York City through jazz rhythms, Latin flair, and unforgettable melodies. The concert concludes with George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue — a masterpiece that defined a new American sound, where classical tradition meets the swagger and soul of jazz.

CHARLES IVES The Unanswered Question
BOYD EAGLE Caprice
PETER BOYER Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue
featuring Jeffrey Biegel, piano
LEONARD BERNSTEIN "Symphonic Dances" from West Side Story
GEORGE GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
featuring Jeffrey Biegel, piano

Sponsored in part by
THE MICHAEL BAYOUTH CHARITABLE FUND
SHOKO KATO SEVART AND THE LATE DANIEL J. SEVART

About Jeffrey Biegel

Considered one of the world's most prolific pianists, Jeffrey Biegel, respected for his incomparable interpretations of standard repertoire, continues to make history by commissioning more than 25 works for piano and orchestra by living composers. In November 2024, Mr. Biegel's recording of Jake Runestad's Dreams of the Fallen with True Concord Voices and Orchestra on the Reference Recordings® label, received a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Choral Performance, a work reflecting lives of surviving veterans, poems by Iraq War veteran, Brian Turner.

Mr. Biegel's life takes its roots from age three, barely able to hear nor speak, until corrected by surgery. The 'reverse Beethoven' phenomenon explains his lifelong commitment to music, having heard only vibrations in his formative years.

The 50-state 'Rhapsody National Initiative' was launched with the World Premiere by the Utah Symphony with Peter Boyer's Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue, followed with the World Premiere recording with the London Symphony Orchestra on the Naxos Records label. The 2024-25 season brings Mr. Biegel to the Pacific Symphony with Music Director Carl St. Clair for the World Premiere of Adolphus Hailstork's Concerto No. 3, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in fall 2025 for the World Premiere of James Lee III's Concerto in A celebrating the centennial of George Gershwin's Concerto in F.

Arrive Early for Concert Talks

If you’d like to learn more about the music in our concert programs, Concert Talks are just what you need! Before every Masterworks Concert, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra will present pre-concert talks which help prepare you and deepen your understanding of the music to be performed in the program. Sometimes our guest soloists even join Maestro Hege for a discussion of their concerto collaboration! Free to all ticket holders, Concert Talks take place in the Concert Hall one hour prior to each Masterworks performance.