A Toast!, a new concert piece written by John Williams, opened a special Gala Concert on September 23 celebrating the arrival of Andris Nelsons as new Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. BSO’s Principal Trombone Toby Oft wrote about it on his blog:
The highlight of the Gala concert for me was the new John Williams composition written for the event, “A Toast!” which used the full BSO brass section plus a few extras. The trombone voicing called for an extra bass trombone which allowed us to utilize a former Tanglewood Fellow, David Hagee, who just one week prior, won a permanent local job as Bass Trombone of the Boston Ballet. Per usual John Williams, the piece was rhythmically and harmonically exciting and stylistically perfect to kick off the Gala event that functioned as a welcome celebration to our new music director.