THE COMPOSER — If he wanted to, American composer Billy Childs could rest solely on the laurels of his jazz career. But he was never meant to be just one thing. According to his biography, Childs grew up “immersed in jazz, classical and popular influences.” Perhaps that is why the biographer refers to him as “the most distinctly American composer since Aaron Copland.” Those are huge shoes to fill. But even while spending so much in the recording studio with the greatest jazz artists of the day, Childs has also been building an impressive portfolio of orchestral and chamber music commissions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Kronos Quartet, the Detroit Symphony, and others. The GRAMMY® nominations are up to 13 at this point, but Childs is far from done.
THE HISTORY — Childs included the following description in the 2022 score: “Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra is a symphonic poem which strives to chronicle the paradigm of the forced black American diaspora, as sifted through the prism of my own experience as a black man in America. When Steven Banks approached me about the piece, the first thing we discussed was the narrative: What particular story would the piece tell? How would it unfold? We decided that, much in the same way that Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit illustrates three poems by Aloysius Bertrand in three separate movements, so would this concerto do with poems by black poets. But then I started thinking of the elegantly succinct and fluent structure of Barber’s Symphony No. 1, where in one multi-sectioned suite, he brilliantly ties together a handful of thematic materials into a seamless and organic whole. So I started to compose from the vantage point that the poems Steven and I settled on (“Africa’s Lament” by Nayyirah Waheed, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay, and “And Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou) would be guideposts which inspired the direction of a three-part storyline: Motherland, If We Must Die and And Still I Rise. Also, I wanted to tie the piece together thematically with various melodies and motifs treated in different ways (inverted, augmented, contrapuntally treated, reharmonized, etc.), like a loosely structured theme and variations—except there are several themes used.” The story in the music takes the listener on an enslaved person’s journey from Africa to America. We travel from the complex “purity” of life in the Motherland, through the abject hell of the Middle Passage, and finally to the sanctuary of church and community. Both harrowing and thrilling, the concerto is a technical tour de force and a potent musical commentary on the Black American experience.
THE WORLD — Elsewhere in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96, civil rights protests erupted in Iran, and the World Cup took place in the unlikely country of Qatar (in the winter!).
THE CONNECTION — This concert marks the Sarasota Orchestra premiere of Billy Childs’ Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra.
Program notes by © Jeff Counts 2025