I just heard that tonight Bela Fleck’s banjo concerto premiers and is being shown in a free and live webcast. The piece is called Béla Fleck’s Concerto for Banjo and Orchestra. Also being aired tonight are Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony but I don’t think Fleck is playing on those, just on his new piece.
The piece was written in the 2010-11 timeframe after he got a commission from the Nashville symphony and it is dedicated to Earl Scruggs. (I wonder if Earl will be in the audience tonight?) Please note though it’s 7:00PM Central Standard Time.
As some might know, Bela Fleck has put out at least two CDs of classical music, 1997s Uncommon Ritual with Edgar Meyer and Mike Marashall and 2001s Perpetual Motion. He frequently plays classical pieces in his concerts as small solo pieces and seems quite comfortable with the genre.