Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Road Trip

Staycation Summer Road Trip on WPRB

Why travel abroad this summer, when there’s plenty to see right here?

This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll load up the RV and accompany composers on a trip around the country. We’ll have musical evocations of our states, cities and natural wonders. Along the way, we’ll travel Route 66 with Michael Daugherty, view some road movies with John Adams, and stop off to fill the tank with Virgil Thomson. We’ll even get lost in Philadelphia with Paul Lansky – during the Democratic National Convention, no less!

“The man who goes alone can start today,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, “but he who travels with another must wait until the other is ready.” I’m perfectly happy to wait until tomorrow.

Join me from 6 to 11 a.m. EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll do our best not to sing along with the radio, on Classic Ross Amico.

July 27, 2016
Labor Day Road Trip American Music

Labor Day weekend. Summer’s last hurrah.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” it’s an hour of quintessentially American music about travel by car.

Frederick Shepherd Converse’s “Flivver Ten Million” celebrates the Ford Motor Company’s affordable assembly line automobile, from its creation in a Detroit factory to the manifest destiny of America’s roadways.

John Adams’ “Road Movies” has nothing to do with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, alas; what it is, however, is a violin sonata written firmly within the American tradition, with a special affinity at its core with Copland’s Violin Sonata.

Virgil Thomson’s “Filling Station,” written for Leon Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan, may have the distinction of being the only ballet set at a gas station. The work’s success gave Copland the confidence to follow through on a Caravan commission which resulted in “Billy the Kid.”

Finally, we’ll hear one of Michael Daughtery’s most performed works, the exuberant “Route 66,” inspired by the storied “Main Street of America.”

Join me for “The Last Roads of Summer.” American composers hit the road for Labor Day this week, on “The Lost Chord.” This Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Friday morning at 3. Or catch it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

August 31, 2014

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