Coming up in Philly music: Dolce Suono Ensemble revisits post-WWII compositions with 'Rediscoveries'

Mimi Stillman’s Dolce Suono Ensemble has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in the last two years. Both grants have supported projects that illuminate significant aspects of our national musical history. The first grant supported two concerts in 2017 that sampled the music Americans listened to in the first years after the ratification of the Constitution. The second is supporting two concerts that focus on American composers who plied their trade in the decades after the Second World War. The second concert in the new series will feature composers, such as Louise Talma, who had a major influence on American music in their own day but tend to be overlooked today.

Second looks with an experimental format

Dolce Suono is experimenting with a special format for this event. The concert will run three hours, with a reception and panel discussion between the two halves. The panelists will both be musicians who are personally familiar with the period under discussion. Richard Wernick is one of the composers represented on the program. James Freeman is the founder of Orchestra 2001, which specialized in the whole range of twentieth-century music when he was its music director and conductor.

The composer lineup includes one figure who needs no introduction: Leonard Bernstein will be represented by a chamber-ensemble version of the overture to Candide, arranged by Dolce Suono’s own pianist-composer, Charles Abramovic.

The Dolce Suono Ensemble will present “Rediscoveries” on Sunday, March 31, at 3pm at Trinity Center for Urban Life (2212 Spruce Street). Tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for seniors, and $10 for students. They’re available online, by phone at (267) 252-1803, and at the door.