Playing and Being Played, a concerto for violin and orchestra by Daniel Brewbaker, was performed on June 1, 2025 at the Mondavi Arts Center, at UC Davis. The soloist was Rachel Lee Priday, and the orchestra was conducted by Christian Baldini.
A celebration of the concerto form, this program unusually presented three very different concertos on one program. Through these specific works, composers make broader human connections beyond the concert space.
Gershwin famously folded jazz — exploding in popularity at the time — into the orchestra with the piano at center.
Daniel Brewbaker took inspiration from 12th century poet Sufi, asking: Is the violinist playing the violin or the violin playing the violinist?
Eliza Brown vividly connected, in one ten-minute soaring work, her mother’s favorite music with Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando,” with the essence of both her own (and her mother’s) musical spirit.