Pianist Jeffrey Biegel is set to join the Springfield Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Clark State Performing Arts Center for a concert called America at 250: A Star-Spangled Celebration, closing out Veterans Day week with a program built entirely around American composers.
The evening centers on Peter Boyer's Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue, a piece commissioned by Biegel himself, according to the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Biegel commissioned Boyer to write the concerto in celebration of the centennial of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, per Propulsive Music. Biegel later recorded the work with the London Symphony Orchestra under Boyer's own baton, with Naxos releasing that recording, the orchestra's website notes.
Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson, who has reportedly planned to work with Biegel for decades, described the concerto in vivid terms, calling it a stunning piece, like musical fireworks, thrilling from beginning to end. Wilson has also said the piece may appeal to listeners who enjoy John Williams's film music, drawing a line between Boyer's orchestral sweep and the sound of Hollywood's most recognizable scores, according to the Springfield News-Sun.
A Program Built Around the American Sound
Beyond the Boyer commission, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra says it seeks to celebrate the uniquely American symphonic sound, weaving together music by George Gershwin, William Grant Still and Leonard Bernstein across the night. The program includes Bernstein's Three Dances from On the Town, a piece that combines jazz and orchestral elements, per the News-Sun's reporting. Gershwin, meanwhile, is represented through his adaptation of Catfish Row from Porgy and Bess, a symphonic suite he built for a 10-week national tour and which folds in Summertime, I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' and Bess, You Is My Woman Now.
William Grant Still rounds out the bill as what the News-Sun describes as a musical pioneer and one of the first African American composers whose music used blues in a symphonic setting. Taken together, the lineup frames the evening as a survey of composers who helped shape what organizers call the national sound.
Part of a Wider 50-State Push
The Springfield date is one stop in what the orchestra describes as a nationwide initiative supporting Biegel, though accounts of that effort differ on its origins and scope. The Springfield Symphony Orchestra states that Biegel's Rhapsody National Initiative began in 2023 and is scheduled to continue through 2027, while Brooklyn College describes him as pursuing the project since 2020, with performances intended to continue through the 2026-27 season.
The orchestra counts tied to the initiative have shifted over time as well. Propulsive Music reported in January 2024 that the effort had secured commitments from 54 orchestras across all 50 states. By July 2026, the Park Record put that figure at more than 72 orchestras from all 50 states, while a separate February 2026 account from The Wichita Eagle described plans to reach 68 orchestras in all 50 states by fall 2027. Biegel first premiered the Boyer concerto with the Utah Symphony on June 30, 2023, at the Deer Valley Music Festival, according to the same Park Record account.
Other orchestras have staged similar programming around the country's 250th anniversary. The Wichita Symphony Orchestra built a concert around both Boyer's Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the Eagle reported. The Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, meanwhile, scheduled its own 250th-anniversary concert featuring Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Still's Symphony No. 1, Afro-American, according to a report from Symphony.
Getting Tickets in Springfield
Tickets for the Springfield concert range from $18 to $83 and are available through the Springfield Symphony Orchestra's website. Students can attend for $15; those 18 or older need student identification, according to the orchestra's ticket page. With Veterans Day week wrapping up and the country's 250th anniversary having taken place that July, the Clark State stage offers a local chance to hear the patriotic repertoire that has been touring concert halls nationwide.
