Cold Mountain is the story of a Confederate soldier who deserts the army to return to the love of his life and his North Carolina home. Composer Jennifer Higdon found her way back to the very same mountain, where she weaves the most beautiful melodies from her full-length, award-winning 2016 opera, Cold Mountain, into a 17-minute symphonic suite for the concert hall. This piece is the result of a nationwide commissioning consortium, New Music for America, whose steering committee includes our own conductor. This consortium is charged with bringing new music by top-tier composers to hometowns across the country. Adolphus Hailstork gives the much-loved hymn, Amazing Grace, a new home in contemporary American repertoire in his feel-good fanfare, the second piece performed at the inaugural prelude in 2021. In a way, Tchaikovsky also came home in Symphony No. 6, bringing a lifetime of emotions and experience to this deeply, deeply personal score, “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose.” It’s triumphant. It’s tragic. It’s transforming. It’s time!