With strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and sometimes a piano, most symphonies have looked the same on stage no matter the century, but the music coming from those same instruments continues to evolve, and in some ways, stay the same.

“The orchestra, although it can sort of expand and contract depending on the requirements of the piece of music, is still essentially the same type of ensemble that it was during Bach’s day,” Ben Harris, executive director for the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas said of SoNA’s opening concert, Oceans of Time: Orchestral Evolutions.

The concert will explore the evolution of symphonic music beginning with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Then the music jumps to the present with a world premiere of “Oceans of Time” written by 44-year-old Cuban composer Aldo López-Gavilán and performed by soloist Lara Downes on piano. After an intermission, the symphony goes back to orchestra’s earlier days with Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 for the finale.

Harris said that the placement of Dvorak at the end of the program was pragmatic because it’s the longest piece, but it also reinforces the concert’s theme.

The idea for the commissioned piece came from SoNA’s previous executive director D. Riley Nicholson and current music director Paul Haas.

“They looked at a lot of composers that are writing modern music and really felt like [López-Gavilán] was the perfect fit for this orchestra, for this region, to debut a piece of music,” said Harris who took over as executive director of SoNA in September 2023. Last month, SoNA announced that Haas will depart at the end of the 2024-25 season.

Soloist Downes said that López-Gavilán’s style of writing is “exactly what the classical music scene needs.”

“He’s such a gifted pianist and writer, and I just love his style, which reflects his blended musical origins and interest in music that spans genres and traditions,” she said in an email interview with What’s Up.

The title is biographical for López-Gavilán, who crossed oceans to make music with his brother, Ilmar, who was recognized as a child prodigy and left Cuba to pursue violin in the U.S. when they were both still children. The story is the subject of a documentary, “Los Hermanos.”

“‘Oceans to Cross’ is inspired by the global nature of all of our music,” Downes said. She added that López-Gavilán compositions defy categorization with his blend of classical, jazz and Latin American traditions.

“My favorite quote and my mantra for my life is a quote from Duke Ellington,” she said. “Ellington called both music and people beyond category, meaning at our core, we humans and our music (are) really all the same, and it stems from the same place, which is just our basic humanity.”

“Oceans to Cross,” was also composed as part of Downes’ Rising Sun Initiative, which aims to record and commission works by composers of color and thereby expand the piano concerto repertoire while reflecting the diversity among living composers. She is also the host of Amplify With Lara Downes, where she interviews Black creatives from the worlds of classical, country, jazz and poetry among other disciplines.

“It’s always such a pleasure and a privilege to introduce audiences to something new and beautiful and something that certainly reflects so many of our experiences and our histories, and, again, brings us all together in a common space of lived experience.”

—

FYI

Oceans of Time: Orchestral Evolutions

WHAT — The opening concert of the 2024-25 season for the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas with performances of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, a world premiere of pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán’s “Oceans to Cross” performed by Lara Downes and Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. for a “westward journey from classical music’s European birthplace all the way to the multicultural mecca of the Americas.”

WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21

WHERE — Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville

TICKETS — Single Tickets are $37-$62. 18 and younger free with accompanying adult. Discount student tickets available with a student photo I.D.

INFO — sonamusic.org/ticketed-performances/24-25-oceans-of-time

NEXT UP: Futuristic Fantasia: SoNA Goes Sci-Fi!, 7:30 pm. Nov. 9 with classical music from iconic movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and others plus music about events that actually inspired the writers directors, and composers.