Orchestra Toronto | Dances Of The Americas

We are thrilled to present a programme of music inspired by the exciting dances of this continent, and to share the stage with Denis Plante (originally scheduled to perform with Orchestra Toronto in 2020).

Florence Price, originally composed Dances in the Canebrakes as three piano pieces, with rhythms drawn from the ragtime dances of Joplin.

Astor Piazzolla’s father gave him a bandoneón (like a small accordion with buttons instead of a piano keyboard) and told him to learn the tango. So he reinvented the national dance of his homeland, Argentina, mixing ideas from classical music, jazz, and popular forms. Aconcagua, his bandoneón concerto, received its nickname from its publisher, who said the composition represented the highest peak of Piazolla’s work. (Aconcagua is the highest mountain peak in South America).

You’ll recognize the Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” from last summer’s Spielberg remake of Jerome Robbins’ and Leonard Bernstein’s classic new-world retelling of Romeo and Juliet, arguably some of the best musical theatre writing in the history of the form.

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