Orchestral Music > Chariots
"Chariots," written in 1978, was commissioned by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It was premiered on August 8, 1979, at Saratoga Springs with Ulysses Kay as guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Kay envisioned "Chariots" as "symbolic of a person's aspirations and being."
The work is based on the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," but Kay was also inspired by the texts shown above right.