She was an extraordinary figure of her time. 26 years before women were granted the right to vote in the United States, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach composed a symphony that conquered Boston.

The “Gaelic Symphony,” as she titled it, was written in 1894. It was conceived in direct response to a call by prominent Czech composer Antonin Dvořák for Americans to break away from the European models they had for so long venerated. Instead, he urged Americans to open themselves up to their own surroundings, to find what was uniquely American and forge a distinctive national sound. For a Boston resident, English, Scottish, and Irish melodies would have been natural resources.

To coincide with the 150th anniversary of Beach’s birth, the Westminster Community Orchestra will revive this rarely-heard work, on Saturday at 8 p.m. The concert will take place at Princeton Meadow Event Center. Also on the program will be Mendelssohn’s “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” and a recent opus, “The Heroine’s Theme,” by Westminster Master of Music in Composition student Caeleb Tee.

You will find my article on Amy Beach and the “Gaelic Symphony” in this week’s U.S. 1, a handsome newspaper, established in 1984, with a circulation of nearly 20,000. Copies are available up and down the Route 1 corridor of Central NJ – including, of course, Princeton. Or you can follow this link.

http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=5-3-17ochs

Ruth Ochs, conductor of the Westminster Community Orchestra for the past 12 years, will be my guest this afternoon on WWFM – The Classical Network. Tune in at 4:00 p.m. EDT to enjoy our conversation about Amy Beach and the “Gaelic Symphony.”