The SPCO adds four video concerts for free, on-demand streaming

Alicia McQuerrey plays Valerie Coleman’s Maombi Asante (Prayer of Thanks) in a never-before-seen video concert, now available for streaming.

Today, our free digital Concert Library saw a twenty percent growth in on-demand options — the largest video release day yet! Four full-length concerts, comprised of seventeen pieces, are now available for free streaming anytime. Included in this release is the never-before-seen program “A Breath of Summer” and the world premiere performances of new works by Clarice Assad, Viet Cuong, Brent Michael Davids and Michi Wiancko

These programs were first performed and recorded in spring 2021 as part of our fully digital 2020.21 concert season. They offer a dynamic digital concertgoing experience with vibrant visuals and close-up camera work so you never miss a beat.

Start exploring the concerts below for free in the Concert Library — anytime, anywhere.

Bach, Cuong, Frank and Mozart

One of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most cherished works, his Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, opens this program followed by a world premiere written by the “alluring” and “wildly inventive” (The New York Times) composer Viet Cuong. Gabriela Lena Frank’s string quartet Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout seamlessly blends cultural and musical traditions, evoking Andean and Incan imagery. The concert closes with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s lighthearted Divertimento for two horns and string quintet, a piece first written for royal parties that has stood the test of time as a remarkable chamber music work.

Songs of Sorrow, Songs of Hope

As May 25, 2021 marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, we dedicated this program in honor of his life. After a year filled with uncertainty, this program offered music of mourning and healing. We began with the slow movement of George Walker’s First String Quartet, titled Lyric — an elegy he wrote in honor of his grandmother who escaped slavery. The world premiere performance of American Indian composer Brent Michael Davids’ new work for solo flute followed. We concluded with Franz Joseph Haydn’s series of seven musical meditations on Christ’s final words.

Season Finale: Assad, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Shaw and Wiancko

Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw’s string quartet Entr’acte opens our final program of the 2020.21 season, a piece inspired by Joseph Haydn’s Second String Quartet. Principal Clarinet Sang Yoon Kim and Principal Bass Zachary Cohen take the stage next in a world premiere of Clarice Assad’s latest work. In the last half of the program, we share Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sextet for Two Horns and Strings, composed during his student years and modeled after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, before a passionate ending with an early career work by Felix Mendelssohn.

Bonus! A Breath of Summer

In this exclusive never-before-seen program, refreshing winds migrate through the Classical, Modern and Contemporary eras until met with a breathtaking rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s Summer.