The next concert by the Music Academy‘s 2024 Festival Orchestra comes at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27, in the Granada Theater, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara.

Conducted by David Robertson, the concert features the dazzling young fiddler Leila Josefowicz, a specialist in contemporary works, as soloist in the American John Adams’ shimmering “Violin Concerto” (1995), and concludes with Sergei Prokofiev‘s “Symphony No. 5 in Bb-Major, Opus 100” (1944).

In recent years, the Music Academy has been increasingly stepping up as champion of American music — that is, music composed by Americans.

I have found few, if any, concerts in this year’s summer festival which do not contain at least one work by an American (besides George Gershwin and Aaron Copland), and many in which native talents dominate.

John Adams, one of the most popular and accomplished of contemporary American musicians, is usually discussed in terms of “minimalism,” which Wikipedia defines as:
 
“Minimal music (also called minimalism) is a form of art music or other compositional practice that employs limited or minimal musical materials. Prominent features of minimalist music include repetitive patterns or pulses, steady drones, consonant harmony, and reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units.”

Like most verbal descriptions of music, this gives us some idea of how certain composers go about putting their works together, but absolutely no idea of how they will sound.

(“You know me, and you know my music,” Phillip Glass said to me, when I asked him about the “minimalism” label; “if somebody wants to stick the word ‘minimalism’ on it, that’s their problem, not mine. It changes nothing, and explains nothing.”)
 
That said, I have heard many works by John Adams — “Grand Pianola Music,” “Shaker Loops,” “The Chairman Dances,” “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” — in which the composer seems to check off all the boxes in the Wikipedia definition, but the “Violin Concerto” is definitely not one of them, which may be why I like it better.

If the concerto calls to mind any other composer for me, it is Bartok — the Bartok of the “Concerto for Orchestra” or the two movement “Violin Concerto No. 1.” It is a fascinating work, and — in the slow movement — quite unexpectedly beautiful.

Prokofiev’s “Fifth Symphony” is probably his greatest work in the form and, except for the “Symphony No. 1 in D-Major ‘Classical,’ Opus 25 (1916-17),” the most often heard in concert halls.

The soundscape is similar to Shostakovich‘s, though not quite as dark, and Prokofiev had a lot more beautiful melodies in his arsenal.

Pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m.: Nate Bachhuber, the Music Academy’s chief artistic officer, will join maestro Robertson onstage to discuss the evening’s program. Free admission with a concert ticket.

Tickets to the concert are $18-$115 (Community Access, when available, $10; young people ages 7-17 admitted free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult).

Tickets can be purchased in person at the Granada Box Office, 1214 State St., by phone at 805-899-2222, or online at www.ticketing.granadasb.org/events.

Tickets for this and all other Summer Festival events can also be bought in person at the Carsey Box Office, 1070 Fairway Road, Montecito, by phone at 805-969-8787, or online at www.musicacademy.org.