ORCHESTRAL
PROJECTS
Lara Downes’ onstage adventures as a soloist with leading orchestras
“Lara Downes, as soloist, gave the imposing piano writing the heat of Liszt while maintaining the specific personality of Price.”
“Expect glamour with substance”
REPERTOIRE HIGHLIGHTS
-
In 2026 we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, founded on the core principles of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Visionary pianist and cultural catalyst Lara Downes examines these three essential concepts with DECLARATION, a groundbreaking project for piano and orchestra that weaves together music and personal narrative in a contemporary declaration of our collective hopes, struggles, and untold histories. This concert will premiere in New York in July 2026 with the American Composers Orchestra under Eric Jacobsen, featuring new works by Grammy award-winning composers Valerie Coleman, Arturo O'Farrill and Christopher Tin, respectively titled Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.
-
Lara Downes is known as one of the foremost interpreters of Florence Price’s music, whose solo piano works she brought to the attention of millions of listeners in world premiere recordings with her widely acclaimed 2019 album Florence Price Piano Discoveries.
Lara has performed Price’s 1933 Piano Concerto in D Minor with leading American orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Detroit Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording of the Price Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be released in 2026.
-
In February 1924, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was premiered in New York City. It captured the exuberant essence of what the composer called “a musical kaleidoscope of America—our vast melting pot...”
Visionary American pianist Lara Downes reimagines Gershwin’s masterpiece to reflect on a century of immigration and transformation, commissioning a radical new arrangement by the Puerto Rican composer Edmar Colón that reverberates with the multicultural, kaleidoscopic sounds of America in our own time. This adventurous work had its world premiere in October 2023 alongside a future-forward ensemble of dynamic young musicians from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra and Roots, Jazz and American Music programs led by conductor Edwin Outwater.
-
In his memoir Music Is My Mistress, Ellington wrote, “I visualized this new world as a place in the distant future where there would be no war, no greed, no categorization, no non-believers, where love was unconditional, and no pronoun was good enough for God.”
New World A-Comin’ is a 13-minute rhapsody for piano and band. The title comes from a book of the same name by the much-decorated Black journalist and author Roi Ottley, which documented the daily lives of African Americans in Harlem during the 1920s and ’30s as well as their hope for a better future. Musically, that hope takes the form of a virtuoso showpiece for Ellington at the piano. The beautiful theme and variations are supported with rich overtones and chords that are reminiscent of Ravel and the Romantic sweetness of Rachmaninoff.
-
Lara's creative vision embodies Strayhorn's motto that "all music is beautiful," and this suite ignites the imagination, teleporting audiences to another era - one of growth, dynamism, and newfound expression. This piece also celebrates Strayhorn's decades-long collaboration with his mentor and colleague, Duke Ellington, with whom he co-wrote numerous iconic songs, including the latter two featured in this suite.
Downes’ artistry has been called “a musical ray of hope” by NBC News, and this work -- proudly co-commissioned by the Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Brevard Music Center, and several other partners -- offers that very essential element: hope for a bright future in today's dynamic world.
NEW COMMISSIONS
-
Premiering 2027 in San Francisco with the New Century Chamber Orchestra
-
Premiering in Houston with ROCO in 2027
BRIDGES captures the journeys that bridge past and future to keep us moving forward, always in pursuit of our elusive American Dream. The piece unfolds as a suite of musical conversations between piano and orchestral soloists, each inspired by a historic milestone in our quest toward the American promise of equal opportunity for all people. Gradually, these strands come together as the full orchestra unites, with the piano as a constant leading voice of hope and possibility.
-
OCEANS TO CROSS is inspired by the human journeys of migration, identity, and imagination - the common languages of music and mission that can unite us across oceans and histories in the pursuit of beauty.
“Pianist Lara Downes is an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten.”