Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No. 1 is a radiant call to strength, leadership, and possibility. Written in 1987 and dedicated to conductor Marin Alsop, the piece responds directly to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (1942) — expanding his vision to celebrate the often-unacknowledged power of women who shape the world through courage and creativity.

Scored for brass and percussion, Tower’s music bursts with vitality and precision. Its brilliant opening gestures and rhythmic propulsion convey energy that is both heroic and human — bold yet grounded in grace. Where Copland’s fanfare suggests solemn nobility, Tower’s counterpart exudes warmth, confidence, and forward motion.

Over time, Tower composed five additional fanfares, each honoring “uncommon women.” Together, they form a powerful collective portrait: music that amplifies resilience and reminds us that heroism can be luminous, fierce, and deeply compassionate.

Composed in 2022, Jessie Montgomery’s Hymn for Everyone is a radiant orchestral meditation on unity, renewal, and shared humanity. Written during a time of global uncertainty, the work embodies a quiet determination to heal and begin again. Its title evokes both personal reflection and collective belonging — a hymn not bound by words or creed, but open to all who listen.

Montgomery’s music unfolds with luminous calm, blending lyrical string lines, warm brass chorales, and transparent harmonies that recall the open soundscapes of Copland and Barber while remaining distinctly her own. As the piece progresses, gentle tension gives way to spacious resolution, suggesting the strength found in empathy and connection.

Hymn for Everyone affirms Montgomery’s voice as one of the most eloquent of her generation — music that bridges generations and communities, offering grace, healing, and quiet hope for the world we share.

Jake Heggie’s The Work at Hand is an intimate, deeply human meditation on courage and creation in the face of mortality. Composed in 2014 for mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and cellist Anne Martindale Williams, the work sets poetry by Laura Morefield, written during her final year of life as she confronted terminal illness. Rather than lament, Heggie finds light — transforming loss into purpose and fragility into grace.

Scored for mezzo-soprano, cello, and orchestra, the three movements trace a journey from inward reflection to transcendent calm. The cello’s voice becomes both companion and conscience, entwined with the singer’s lines in shared vulnerability. Heggie’s lyrical language, by turns tender and luminous, captures the poet’s message: that art itself is a form of endurance. The Work at Hand is not about dying, but about living fully — an act of courage rendered in sound.

Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 stands as one of the great monuments of American music — a radiant affirmation of faith in the human spirit. Written between 1944 and 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, the work captures a nation’s collective yearning for hope and renewal. Broad in scope and deeply lyrical, it weaves together pastoral serenity, quiet introspection, and moments of breathtaking grandeur.

The symphony culminates in a triumphant transformation of Copland’s own Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), integrating that familiar brass proclamation into a sweeping vision of unity and optimism. Its open harmonies, spacious textures, and soaring melodies evoke the vastness of the American landscape — and the generosity of its ideals. In Symphony No. 3, Copland created not only a symphonic masterpiece, but a musical declaration of resilience, dignity, and the enduring power of hope.