Celebrated Venezuelan conductor Manuel López-Gómez, one of the most remarkable talents to emerge from Venezuela's El Sistema music education program, returns to The Clarice for a remarkable blend of repertoire by Joan Tower, Maurice Ravel and Modest Mussorgsky. Tower’s Made in America depicts an internal struggle between dissonant musical ideas and the piece’s anchoring theme: America the Beautiful. Through this meditation for orchestra, Tower responds to the question of how to keep America beautiful.

The program continues with Ravel’s impressionist ballet score Daphnis et Chloé, which paints the love story between two shepherds in ancient Greece. Closing this performance is Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a collection of vivid vignettes that journey through 10 colorful paintings—from an old castle to a bustling marketplace.

Program:

Tower: Made in America
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No.2
Mussorgsky (arr. Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition