Evanston Symphony Orchestra

Paul Whiteman—a bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist—wanted a piece that combined jazz and classical music for “An Experiment in Modern Music” concert to be premiered on February 12, 1924, at Aeolian Concert Hall in New York City.

Born in 1875 to a white English mother, Alice Hare Martin, and a Sierra Leonean father, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was raised by his mother and never knew his father, who had moved back to Sierra Leone before Samuel was born.

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era. He began piano lessons at age six and showed an early gift for capturing character and emotion in melody.