Musical hands across the ocean

The American Classical Orchestra is generously offering to lighten the gloom of Europeans trapped by the volcanic cloud in New York (although it's hardly the worst place for an enforced stopover). This Saturday the ACO performs the climactic concert of its 25th-anniversary season at the Big Apple's Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, and any stranded European nationals will be given a free ticket if they show their passport at the door.

Concert preview on YouTube

It's a rumbustious bill. It opens with Handel's Coronation Anthems, which will be adorned by 60 dancers from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, and the Ballet Hispanico School, performing contemporary choreography by Cynthia Fuller-Kling. The second half is a full-scale performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, featuring 150 singers from three different choirs alongside the four soloists.

The American Classical Orchestra is a period instrument ensemble specialising in Baroque, Classical and early Romantic repertoire, and was formed by Thomas Crawford in 1985. "Some of our musicians are stranded in Europe," says Crawford. "We are re-enacting a European coronation in a stunning cathedral - help them feel at home! Beethoven's Ninth is a people-uniter, and prompts people to want to reach out with gestures of love and humanity. It refers to the power of nature - not volcanoes but the starry firmament. This is an overwhelmingly 'happy' concert, thrilling, uplifting, so it will bring joy and familiar ground to those stuck here."

Jolly nice of him, theartsdesk reckons. Who says the special relationship is dead?

Thomas Crawford discusses Beethoven's Ninth on YouTube