Credits:

Avalon String Quartet, Andy Baker Orchestra

Description:

Leo Sawabie was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and began composing at the age of 10. At age 15, he developed an interest in the organ and taught himself to play it while studying composition at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago; in 1913, his violin concerto received its premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During World War I, he lived in France as a bandmaster, and in 1927, he became the organist and choir director at St. James Church in Chicago, establishing his international reputation. In 1946, he won the Pulitzer Prize for *Canticle of the Sun* and is known as a composer of sacred music, though he left behind more than 500 works across various genres.In the 1920s, Paul Whitemanthe leader of the most popular jazz band of the time and known as the King of Jazzcommissioned Gershwin to compose a symphonic work, resulting in *Rhapsody in Blue*