Gulf Coast Symphony performs “A Composer’s Travelogue” in the Music & Arts Community Center on Saturday, Feb. 21.
It's a symphonic journey across continents and cultures. From the fiery dances of Spain and Italy to the twilight stillness of North Africa and moonlit deserts of Central Asia, this program celebrates the way composers have captured the sounds of places they visited, imagined, or longed for. Creator Andrew Kurtz provides insight.
“I was traveling around New Year's, and I was starting to think about how travel influences and changes you, and how when we travel, we want to soak up the culture that we're going to,” said Kurtz. “Our great composers used to travel as well. And I was like, there's all these great pieces that composers have written, like when Gershwin went to Cuba and wrote the ‘Cuban Overture,’ and I was like, oh that would make for a very interesting concert.”
Kurtz rattles off several more examples, including Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov, who composed “Capriccio Espanol” while in Spain.
“So that's how that particular concert is curated,” Kurtz said. “It's a travelogue we will experience of these different composers who are not from that native country.”
Ravel, Debussy, and Rimsky-Korsakov bring Spain to life through three different lenses. Strauss and Tchaikovsky take us to Italy. Ibert sails us through three vivid ports of call. It’s one concert, eight countries, 10 composers’ passports stamped in music — and a reminder that long before airplanes, orchestras were already traveling the world.
MORE INFORMATION:
Featured composers are:
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France’s greatest living composer.
Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of 10 to France’s leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris. He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire’s conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) was a Russian composer celebrated for his brilliant orchestration and imaginative use of folk themes. A naval officer turned composer, he infused his works with color, fantasy, and national spirit. His music often explored nature, legend, and the supernatural, creating vivid, timeless soundscapes that defined Russian musical identity.
Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) was a French composer, pianist, and organist celebrated for his brilliance, precision, and versatility. A child prodigy, he mastered every major musical form with elegance and clarity. His works often explore themes of nature, mythology, and spirituality, blending classical balance with Romantic color. Renowned for his orchestral imagination and technical mastery, Saint-Saëns created music of refined beauty and lasting power, uniting intellect and emotion in a uniquely disciplined yet expressive style.
Jacques Ibert
Jacques Ibert (1890–1962) was a French composer known for his elegance, versatility, and independence of style. Trained at the Paris Conservatoire and winner of the Prix de Rome, he composed music marked by clarity, wit, and color. His works, including Escales and Divertissement, reveal vivid orchestration, rhythmic energy, and lyrical grace. Blending humor, refinement, and imagination, Ibert created music that captured both sophistication and charm, securing his place as one of France’s most distinctive 20th-century composers.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Vyatka, Russia. His work was first publicly performed in 1865. In 1868, his First Symphony was well-received. In 1874, he established himself with Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat Minor. Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, and spent the rest of his career composing yet more prolifically. He died in St. Petersburg on November 6, 1893.
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) was a Russian composer, chemist, and key figure in shaping a national musical identity. Though science was his profession, his music revealed remarkable lyricism, color, and structure. Works like Prince Igor and In the Steppes of Central Asia show his gift for melody, vivid orchestration, and emotional depth, uniting intellect and artistry.
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) was an Italian composer celebrated for his vivid orchestration and evocative tone poems. Trained in Bologna and influenced by Italian history and art, he brought ancient themes to life through modern symphonic color. Works like Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome reveal his mastery of atmosphere, melody, and orchestral brilliance.
George Gershwin
Born on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, George Gershwin dropped out of school and began playing piano professionally at age 15. Within a few years, he was one of the most sought-after musicians in America. He was a composer of jazz, opera and popular songs for stage and screen, and many of his works are now standards.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
