Throughout his tenure with the ASO, Robert Spano has championed American and contemporary composers. This weekend continues this legacy with a new piano concerto by Michael Gandolfi. If history proves correct, audiences will love this eighth Gandolfi commission from the ASO. It's sure to dazzle audiences in the hands of the extraordinary pianist Marc-André Hamelin.

Maestro Spano bookends the new piano concerto with American classics from Aaron Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man and Symphony No. 3. When asked how a Jewish boy from Brooklyn could write cowboy music, Copland answered, "Well, all American boys love the West!" He could also have been influenced by his mother, who grew up in the Wild West — Texas — in the time of Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Be sure and listen for a reprise of Fanfare for the Common Man in the final movement of Copland's Third Symphony.