Musical Inspirations
Conductor: Kalena Bovell
Saturday, April 27, 2024 – 7:30pm
Keppel Auditorium, Catawba College

Kalena Bovell takes the podium to lead an evening of music inspired by friends, family, and colleagues opening with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor written while still a student at the Royal College of Music. The piece premiere came after Elgar’s introduction of Coleridge-Taylor at the Three Choirs Festival which helped to launch his career. We are then treated to the Violin Concerto in A minor by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak whose melodic genius shows affection for the folk music of his homeland. We then hear George Walker’s beautiful Lyric for Strings, a work inspired by and dedicated to his grandmother. Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations is a true testament to friendship with each movement written for a close friend. Beginning with a love song to his wife and ending with a rousing finale symbolic of the beloved composer.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade in A minor
Antonin Dvorak: Violin Concerto in A minor
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations