July 21, 2026

Aaron Copland’s American songs at NCMF this summer

Link to Ticket Sales for August 2026
Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990)

There are two approaches to designing an addition to an old building: match the original or do something completely different. The obvious approach of trying to seamlessly blend the new with the old can be challenging when the craftmanship doesn’t exist anymore. Sometimes it is better to agree that they don’t build things like they used to, and do something dissimilar but in the spirit of what existed before.

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology addition
(on the left, Philadelphia) -
Atkin Olshin Schade Architects tried to match the lines
and aesthetics of the old building next door.

Pierpont Morgan Library (New York City) -
Architect Renzo Piano created a radically modern addition to the
revered institution with a glorious interior atrium.

In perhaps the most famous addition in the world, architect I.M. Pei
added a glass pyramid exhibition hall to the Louvre (Paris)

Composers are faced with a similar dilemma when arranging folk songs. Do you stick to the original or expand and even transform the entire feeling into something new. Early 20th century English composer Ralph Vaughan Willaims arranged traditional folk songs such as Loch Lomond into exquisitely harmonized versions for a cappella choir, taking the music out of pubs and country lanes into the hallowed halls of thousand-year-old churches.

Link to Loch Lomond on YouTube
Loch Lomond

Closer to home, Aaron Copland used the Shaker tune Simple Gifts as the core of his majestic orchestral suite, Appalachian Spring. He also created a more modest version for voice and piano (including four other songs). Violist John Largess subsequently expanded Copland’s piano part into a string quartet which we’ll be performing this summer with renowned soprano Lucy Shelton from the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to Simple Gifts, we’ll perform the soulful At the River, sweet lullaby All the Pretty Little Horses, and the leg-slapping Ching-a-Ring-Chaw.

David Yang, Artistic Director

Soprano Lucy Shelton
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