America the Beautiful
March 7, 2026
Numerica Performing Arts Center
Peter Boyer, GRAMMY-nominated and one of America’s most prominent composers (his music was performed at President Biden’s inauguration), was commissioned by pianist Jeffrey Biegel to compose a work celebrating the 2024 centennial of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Boyer has responded with a work cast, like Gershwin’s, in a single, multi-sectional movement that similarly captures propulsive energy, along with allusions to blues influences and lyrical evocations of American vistas. This brilliantly communicative work was premiered, to great acclaim, in June 2023, and Biegel will be performing it in each of the 50 United States through 2026.
Jeffrey Biegel’s career reflects an unprecedented journey as a pianist having created the most diverse commissioning projects. At age three, he was barely able to hear nor speak, until corrected by surgery.
2020 focused on composing Waltzes of Hope, and Three Reflections: JFK, RBG and MLK, and the following year saw the premieres of his Reflection of Justice: An Ode to Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg for mezzo-soprano, piano and orchestra, with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. In 2022, he premiered his own concerto, Three Reflections: Freedom (JFK), Justice (RBG), Equality (MLK), and 2023 featured the premiere of Peter Boyer’s Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue with the Utah Symphony.
Biegel appeared as soloist in Kenneth Fuchs’s Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’ with the London Symphony Orchestra led by JoAnn Falletta (Naxos 8.559824) which received a 2019 GRAMMY Award, and digital recordings released on his Naturally Sharp label include Cyberecital: An Historic Recording, A Pianist’s Journey, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924 version) with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra and Bruce Kiesling conducting.
The program also includes “The Columbia River Suite” by former WVSOmusic director, Glenn Kelly. Composed in 1973, “Columbia River” is a, “five-movement composition relating the river’s physical and geographical qualities to man’s struggle for purpose in life.”
Program
Shenandoah (arr. Norm Wallen)
Peter Boyer • Rhapsody in Red, White, and Blue (Jeffrey Biegel, piano)
Glenn Kelly • The Columbia River Suite
Jeffrey Biegel performs “Rhapsody in Red, White, & Blue with London Symphony Orchestra
Guest Artist
Jeffrey Biegel
piano