Blue Devils Announce 2009 Program

On the heels of the market crash of 1929 and standing at the gateway of the Great depression – 1930 was a year of complexity and contradiction. The contrast of an economic storm-front and the beauty of American optimism present a collage of the cultural unknown.

With an undeniable foot in the present, the 2009 Blue Devils take a look back at a year when faith and uncertainty were suddenly in a dance of the indefinite. To stand in the face of a tempest or take a seat in the dream of diversion, the artist and innovators of 1930 generated a broad emotional landscape. From the buoyancy of Gershwin’s "I Got Rhythm" to the multifarious "Piano Variations" of Aaron Copland, the Blue Devils offer a modern exploration of one single year. A year that would herald its number one popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" and produced the future Judy Garland classic "Get Happy".

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