In the 1930s, the most frequently-performed symphony in the US by an American composer was the Symphony No. 1, the "Afro-American Symphony" by William Grant Still (it was written in 1930). Yet it has never been performed in Las Cruces as far as anyone can remember — until now. This Sunday, the New Horizons Symphony Orchestra will perform it as the centerpiece of a concert entitled "An American Tribute," which will also feature music by Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Morton Gould, and John Philip Sousa.
The concert is a collaboration with the Dona Ana County chapter of the NAACP, and its president, Dr. Bobbie Green, will read poetry by Paul Laurence Dunbar that Still included in the score of the symphony. She has also assembled images from African-American history that will be projected during the music.
"I've been looking at this music and thinking about the images – because this is a combination of ‘art meets music,’ which is always a good thing – and the poetry is powerful,” Green said in this interview with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin. For her, the symphony is personal. “My parents met in a cotton field. And so I can relate to this music. All of it – the humor, the sorrow, the aspiration, all of it – because that basically is my history.”
This is the first time NHSO conductor Jorge Martinez-Rios, who was also part of the interview, has conducted the work. “Listening to this type of music that brings hope, that has dark moments but yet eight measures later there’s still happiness, it’s just fantastic. It’s a beautiful experience.” Listen the interview to hear more about Still, the symphony, Green’s background, and more.
The concert takes place on Sunday, February 15, 2026, at the Atkinson Recital Hall on the NMSU campus at 3 p.m. Musical clips in the interview come from the Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American” Symphony by William Grant Still, performed by the Ft. Worth Symphony, conducted by John Jeter (Naxos #559174): excerpts from movements 1, 3, more from 1, and 4.
