February 7, 2026
Andrew Constantine, conductor
David Fung, piano
Kevin Torwelle, actor
Bella Hadley, actor
The second celebration in our America 250 series begins with Peter Boyer’s ELLIS ISLAND: The Dream of America. This work was released in 2002 and tells the story of the immigrant experience of searching for new life in the New World. Leonard Bernstein’s non-traditional Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, inspired by Auden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry, brings the evening to a jazzy close.
Read more about this program in Whatzup, which recently published a feature on the Philharmonic’s Ellis Island concert.
Program
PETER BOYER
Ellis Island: The Dream of America
Prologue
Helen Cohen (emigrated from Poland, 1920)
Musical Interlude 1
Words of James Apanomith (Greece, 1911)
Musical Interlude 2
Words of Lillian Galletta (Italy, 1908)
Musical Interlude 3
Words of Lazarus Salamon (Hungary, 1920)
Musical Interlude 4
Words of Helen Rosenthal (Belgium, 1940)
Musical Interlude 5
Words of Manny Steen (Ireland, 1925)
Musical Interlude 6
Words of Katherine Beychok (Russia, 1910)
Epilogue: The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, 1883
Intermission
BERNSTEIN
Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety
The Prologue
The Seven Ages
The Seven Stages
The Dirge
The Masque
The Epilogue
Joyce Yang, piano
