On Friday, Feb. 7, the McIntosh band and orchestra classes traveled to the Coweta County Performing Arts Center for a performance by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The concert, entitled “Uniquely American: Composers Who Built a Nation” honored American composers for their significant influence on American history. The program included George Whitefield Chadwick’s Jubilee movement from Symphonic Sketches, Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony, Charles Ives’s Variations on “America,” the overture to Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, and James Price Johnson’s Drums.

Covering a wide variety of musical styles from orchestral symphonies to ragtime and jazz, the concert provided an overview of American history through music. “The concert was really interesting to listen to because they played all American composers, which you don’t usually hear,” said junior Amelia Fox. “It was cool to hear music that aligned with my AP U.S. History curriculum.”