May 8 2022: Music of Home & Hope (Annual Mother’s Day Concert)

Sunday, May 8, 2022 – 1 pm
Landmark Center, St. Paul, MN

Heitzeg: Green Hope after Black Rain
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”)

Featuring the world premiere of Saint Paul composer Steve Heitzeg’s Green Hope after Black Rain (SPCS’s 75th anniversary commission), with Grieg’s Piano Concerto, performed by Jacob Taggart, and Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

Pianist Jacob Taggart will be the featured soloist at the Saint Paul Civic Symphony’s Annual Mother’s Day Concert at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 8, at the Landmark Center.

Just 15 years old, the 11th-grader at Saint Agnes School in Saint Paul has already gained acclaim in the world of classical music, having traveled internationally, including to Spain, Italy and Russia, for competitions.

He has twice been featured on National Public Radio’s “From the Top,” America’s largest national platform celebrating young, classically trained musicians, and remains one of the youngest grand-prize winners of the preteen and teen divisions of the Minnesota State Fair Amateur Talent Competition.

He has also opened for the rock band Goo Goo Dolls and was featured at Paisley Park and at Orchestra Hall with Grammy-nominated singer Sheila E., Prince’s former drummer.

Jacob also performs with sister Emma as the Taggart Squared duo, including six concerts performing Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals” with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Jacob studied with Reid Smith from age 4 until Smith’s passing in 2021. He now studies with Paul Wirth at the Wirth Center for the Performing Arts.

Jacob will be performing Edvard Grieg’s only piano concerto with the Saint Paul Civic Symphony.


Saint Paul Civic Symphony 75th Anniversary Commemoration



Featuring the world premiere of Saint Paul composer Steve Heitzeg’s Green Hope after Black Rain (SPCS’s 75th anniversary commission), with Grieg’s Piano Concerto, performed by Jacob Taggart, and Dvorak’s New World Symphony.


Listen to Cathy Wurzer, host of Minnesota Public Radio’s Minnesota Now, interview Saint Paul composer Steve Heitzeg about his new work, “Green Hope after Black Rain” (A Symphony for the Survivors of Manzanar, Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

The piece was commissioned by the Saint Paul Civic Symphony, led by music director Jeffrey Stirling, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its post-World War II founding in 1945 and its ties with its Sister Orchestra, the Nagasaki Symphony.

Link to Cathy’s interview with Steve: https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/05/04/st-paul-civic-symphony-to-perform-piece-dedicated-to-atomic-bomb-survivors

Hear the premiere of “Green Hope after Black Rain” at the orchestra’s Annual Mother’s Day Concert at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 8, at the Landmark Center.



Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash