The Afro-American Symphony

The Afro-American Symphony
Royal Welsh College Symphony Orchestra

William Grant Still’s First Symphony blends African American culture and classical form, using quotes from four poems by the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar as epigraphs for each symphonic movement. The same Jazz influences figure strongly in Shostakovich, Suite for Variety Orchestra with RWCMD composition graduate and fellow-American Jared Destro perfectly complimenting both works with Harvest Festival-a depiction of the length of a day, the seven days, the four seasons, and the journey from life to immortality.

Jared Destro Harvest Festival
Shostakovich Suite for Variety Orchestra
William Grant Still Symphony No.1 in A flat major ‘Afro-American’

Conductor David Jones