The concert begins with two of the most popular works of classical music ever written by American composers: Barber's Adagio for Strings, an orchestrated version of the slow movement from the composer's String Quartet No. 1, and Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin's jazz concerto for piano and orchestra, performed here by the French-Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin. Gershwin saw the concerto as "a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness." The OSM closes the concert with excerpts from Shostakovich's ballet The Golden Age.

To celebrate the musical traditions of Canada, the concert is preceded by a friendship song performed by Nicole Gagnier and Sage Harrington of the Kanehsetake Mohawk Territory. They are joined on stage by the Red Urban Project's Turtle Island Dancers, representing the Huron, Anishnabe, Mohawk, Ojibwe, Algonquin, Cri, Oji-Cri and Inuit nations, as well as Kanehsetake elder Cheryl McDonald.

Photo: Charles Richard-Hamelin © Elizabeth Delage