The program opens with the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, one of the earliest Black classical composers and playwrights. Composed as part of his most renowned opera, L’Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover), Saint-Georges’s Overture was performed exclusively for the nobles and royals of late-1700 France. Mozart – Saint-George’s contemporary and, possibly, his roommate in Paris – composed his Violin Concerto as part fun yet challenge for the successor to his position at the Salzburg Court Orchestra. Dedicated to Clara Schumann in 1859, Brahms’s Second Serenade shows the link between the earliest stage of his career and the mature, commanding figure he would have in the classical world.
