Summer Symphony Orchestra at Idyllwild Arts marks the debut of this historic summer program under the leadership of Dr. Daniel Bassin, following his first year as Academy faculty. In collaboration with Music Chair, Kai Potts Smith, this year’s Academy program in Classical Instrumental Music achieved new artistic heights while presenting diverse and cutting-edge programming. The Summer Symphony Orchestra at Idyllwild Arts provides the opportunity for gifted young artists from across the country and the world to experience this dynamic level of music-making in the picturesque IA campus. Our programmatic theme for the two weeks of programming is “The Legacy of Antonín Dvořák in the Americas” and our culmination concert will feature the Symphony No. 3 in C-minor by Florence Price, whose work was also featured on the first Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra program, this past year. The Symphony No. 3 was commissioned by the WPA during the Great Depression, and first performed in 1940. The New York State premiere wasn’t given until May 2nd, 2017, under the direction of Dr. Bassin, then conducting the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo State Philharmonia. Price had studied at the New England Conservatory – also Bassin’s alma mater – and her composition teacher, George Whitefield Chadwick was of the generation of American composers influenced by Antonín Dvořák’s teaching in the 1890s at the National Conservatory of Music of America.