I'm looking forward to the performance
of the Nashville Symphony on February
seven, eight and nine, where we're going
to be dedicating the entire concert to
music from the twentieth century
particularly
we have the great music of the German
composer Schoenberg and the American
composer John Adams,
both of which are connected because
Schoenberg wrote the Treaties on Harmony
and John Adams wrote 
Harmonielehre,
for perhaps one of his most popular
pieces uh... that he's ever composed
 ... it
is a wonderful study of ochestral color
and orchestral
grandiosity. For the Nashville Symphony,
we are doing something rather
unusual
which is
putting two pieces together that were
not written around the same time; not
intended to be paired but I think that
thematically they have a lot in common.
Schoenberg wrote his work "The
Survivors of Warsaw" in nineteen forty-seven
very soon after World War two
to commemorate the victims of the
holocaust. Particularly
the victims of
of the tragedy that took place at the
warsaw ghetto in Poland.
I have experienced this piece from an
audience point of view and I can tell you
that it can be quite quite powerful. The
narrator tells the story;  in this case
were honored to have
the very famous George Takei  who is known to many as Sulu from Star Trek. People of course know Mr. Sulu, but
what what people don't know
very much is that when he was a child
being of Japanese descent, 
he and his family were actually sent to
a Japanese internment camp in nineteen
forty two.  So personally Mr. Takei
has a very personal connection not only
will World War II
but also with
having his own rights being somehow
denied during this time. 
After the Schoenberg - without taking any
break, I'm going to another work
in the twentieth century. This time we have
American composer Charles Ives entitled
 "The Unanswered Question"
and I think the title itself speaks a
lot about what the
continuation of what the
"Survivor From Warsaw" tells us.
There are many things that even in
this day and age are very hard to
explain. Opening up
the concert with
pieces
that like this -  to have such a powerful
message,
both not only musical but historically...I
think it's a wonderful way
that the Nashville Symphony can continue to
reach out
and find ways of
communicating
with forces outside of music.
I'm trying to bring people in and also
in many cases,
come up with their own answers about
what we think our place in history is,
our place in
the universe is.
