Introducing Artist-in-Residence

Aaron Diehl

Pianist and composer Aaron Diehl has appeared at historic venues from Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Village Vanguard to the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonie de Paris. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Aaron traveled to New York in 2003, following his success as a finalist in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition and a subsequent European tour with Wynton Marsalis. For some years he immersed himself in distinctive repertoire from Monk and Ravel to Gershwin and William Grant Still. Among other towering figures, Still in particular inspires Aaron’s ongoing curation of Black American composers in his own performance programming. He has enjoyed artistic associations with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Philip Glass, and multi-GRAMMY-Award-winning artist Cécile McLorin Salvant. He recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra as featured soloist. He holds a bachelor of music degree in Jazz Studies from the Juilliard School. As a licensed pilot, when he’s not at the studio or the concert hall, he’s likely in the air.

What’s the deal with Diehl?

“Diehl’s manner immediately resonated with great masters of the past. His long fingers arced gracefully over the keys, suspended for a time before actually touching them. When they did finally touch, they called forth a sound that was pure silk, light, delicate, as if from another age, or perhaps a breath of wind on a clear day.”

Boston Musical Intelligencer

“There’s an entire world of jazz in Aaron Diehl’s playing … Diehl has a freedom and playfulness that make you hear the piece anew … With a highly improvisatory approach, he makes the case that jazz is not one style or genre but many, gliding gorgeously among decades of artistic influences.”

Philadelphia Inquirer

DownBeat

PRELUDE PROGRAM: ART IN THE TIME OF WAR

Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 7 p.m.

TBD Venue

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Mahler • Adagietto from Symphony No. 5

Ron Ramin and Portia Kamons • Seventeen (world premiere)

Shostakovich • Chamber Symphony Op. 110a (after String Quartet No. 8)

Three generations ago, following JFK’s assassination, Leonard Bernstein said: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” At this concert, Seventeen, created by Portia Kamons and Ron Ramin, explores how a younger generation is responding to violence and seeking a more peaceful and equitable world. And so it is with the other elegiac works on the program that lend themselves to contemplative, memorial occasions: Mahler’s ethereal Adagietto, for example, played at RFK’s funeral, and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, “In memory of the victims of fascism and war,” written after having seen the total destruction of Dresden by Allied bombardment in World War II.

Blues On Bach

Thursday, February 1, 2024 - Night One, 7 p.m.

Main Hall of The Plaza Live

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Aaron Diehl, piano

Patrick Flanaghan, oboe

John Lewis • Blues on Bach

Bach • Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046

Bach • Harpsichord Concerto D Minor, BWV 1052

Music Director Eric Jacobsen leads off our Resonate Series with Bach—both the “original” and John Lewis’ take on Johann Sebastian tunes. Then it’s the exuberant first Brandenburg Concerto that grants a star turn to critically acclaimed Patrick Flanaghan (principal English horn of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) playing in the exquisite Adagio. Bach, like other composers of his time, liked to “borrow” from the best. So that meant borrowing from himself, of course! We don’t know what work(s) inspired the BWV 1052 harpsichord concerto, but we do know that it is his best-loved, performed by our Artist-inResidence. But be warned: the non-stop driving rhythms and virtuosic cadenzas may leave you a little breathless.

BACH & IRISH FUN

Thursday, February 1, 2024 - Night One, 8:45 p.m.

The Palmer Room of The Plaza Live

Aoife Ní Bhriain, fiddle

Patrick Flanaghan, oboe

OPO String Quartet

J.S. Bach • Concerto in D Minor for Oboe & Violin, BWV 1060

Irish folk music

Dublin-born fiddle player Aoife Ní Bhriain’s musical pedigree embraces both classical music training and a rich family heritage of Irish folk music. This concert is a case in point, as she and renowned oboist Patrick Flanaghan—plus the OPO String Quartet—get together for some lively Irish tunes that, without warning, might morph into other sound environments. Starting the Late Night festivities, and also featuring Patrick and Aoife, it’s Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Oboe & Violin, probably written for one of Bach’s Zimmermann Coffeehouse events in Leipzig. Special moments to savor: in the Adagio movement the solo instruments seem to intertwine while the orchestral strings play a simple pizzicato (plucked) accompaniment. Gorgeous!

Celebrating American Music

Saturday, February 3, 2024 - Night Two, 8:45 p.m.

The Palmer Room of The Plaza Live

Rimma Bergeron-Langlois, violin

Sarah Williams, violin

Gabriel Preisser, baritone

Gershwin • Works for violin and piano

Jessie Montgomery • Rhapsody

Prokofiev • Sonata for Two Violins

Weill • “Lost in the Stars”, “Mack the Knife”, “September Song”

Our Concertmaster Rimma shines in works by Americans of different eras: Gershwin and young superstar-composer

Jessie Montgomery’s virtuosic Rhapsody. OPO Principal Clarinet Nikolay Blagov is center stage for Copland’s Sonata, which, like our country’s vast horizons, spans a wide range of pitches and emotions. Kurt Weill embraced his adopted country, creating legendary Broadway musicals and unforgettable songs that are now part of the beloved American Songbook. You’ll be treated to some iconic favorites, irresistibly performed by GRAMMY-Awardwinner Gabriel Preisser (“impossibly charming ... Whenever he’s on stage, the energy sizzles.” - Tampa Bay Times).

Zora Neale Hurston

Saturday, February 3, 2024 - Night Two, 7 p.m.

Main Hall of The Plaza Live

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Aaron Diehl, piano

Aaron Diehl Jazz Trio

John Lewis • ADayinDubrovnik

Weill • Symphony No. 1

Kaia Kater • Zora Neale Hurston

Internationally known and honored with awards and prizes, Grenadian-Canadian singer, songwriter, and banjo artist Kaia Kater pays homage to the great Zora Neale Hurston, whose novels, short stories, and plays focus on racial struggles in the South in the early 1900s. The First Symphony by Weill (you know his macabre song “Mack the Knife”—watch for it later this evening on the Late Night concert) reflects the troubled times after World War I—sometimes meditatively, sometimes with martial cadences. In the opening number, jazzy tourists visit an Old World town.

Zodiac

Monday, February 5, 2024 - Night Three, 7 p.m.

Main Hall of The Plaza Live

Eric Jacobsen, conductor

Aaron Diehl, piano

Aaron Diehl Jazz Trio

Mozart • Symphony No. 31, “Paris”

Williams • Zodiac Suite

Dying to get away from his despised Salzburg employer, Mozart was on a job-hunting trip when he composed his 31st Symphony, for the Paris Orchestra (which happened to have a great clarinet section). He loved the instrument and—spoiler alert—this is his first symphony to use clarinets. Now, turn your eyes heavenward for illuminating impressions of musicians’ respective star signs by the legendary pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams. She masterfully combines jazz and classical idioms to depict the personalities of Ben Webster and Billie Holiday in “Aries”; Duke Ellington in “Taurus”; Art Tatum in “Libra”; Eartha Kitt in “Aquarius,” and more!

All That Jazz

Monday, February 5, 2024, 8:45 p.m.

The Palmer Room of The Plaza Live Jazz Cabaret with local artists