I just got back from a 10-day tour with the New Jersey Youth Symphony to Finland and the Baltics. It was amazing! Here's one of the pieces we got to perform.
Howard Hansen, an American composer who was the head of Eastman School of Music in NY for 40 years, won the Grand Prix Rome composition competition when he was 27 years old. This achievement allowed him to study in Italy for 3 years, during which he composed his first symphony. He dedicates the first movement to his composition teacher, the second to his mother, and the third to his father. Hansen nicknamed the symphony "Nordic" to honor his parents' Swedish heritage.
