Music ASO: Amherst Symphony Orchestra Performance (NEW TIME-- 7 p.m.)

The Amherst Symphony Orchestra presents the fourth concert of its yearlong survey of American music with works by the early iconoclast Charles Ives as well as the modern minimalist master John Adams.

Charles Ives (1874-1954) was a Connecticut insurance executive-cum-composer who forged a radical new American musical language which thumbed its nose at European tradition. Ives celebrated the American spirit and identity by mashing vernacular marches, folk/parlor songs and fiddle tunes into patriotic and humorous collages. The ASO performs Ives' "Country Band March," Variations on "America" and "The Unanswered Question."

John Adams (1947- ), America's most renowned current composer for the traditional concert hall, is in many ways a latter-day Ives: his music embraces all styles and speaks directly of the American experience. The ASO performs "The Chairman Dances" from his opera Nixon in China as well as his setting of Walt Whitman's Civil War poem "The Wound Dresser."

Full details of the orchestra's season are available at www.amherstsymphonyorchestra.com.

Tickets may be purchased only at the door. Tickets are $10 for the general public; $5 for senior citizens, students with ID and children under 12; and free to Amherst and all Five College students with ID. Amherst Symphony Orchestra performs in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Building.

For a complete listing of upcoming Amherst College Department of Music events, visit us on the web: www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/music/events.