It is possible that encounters are pre-determined by fate. Perhaps some of them are compelled by necessity, or maybe they are due merely to chance. As we approach the new millenium, the music of this concert celebrates the coming down of walls and fences. There is an imaginary world, perhaps in a different dimension, where a street in Vienna intersects a street in New York City. Beethoven, Mahler, Ellington, and Gillespie are gathered around a piano in a tavern, exchanging ideas, improvising, and sharing melodic patterns and chord progressions.
More musicians join in.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong. Variations around a theme bring together two cultural heritages and merge in a stream that runs through time. While they play, they are aware of their differences, which they welcome. I have never understood the building of walls and fences that seperate peoples, ideas, and music. This concert is a celebration of some of the beautiful songs and some of the most memorable music that have been enhancing our own adventures in the mirror of the movie screen.