Inspired by Ford Made in America—the commissioning project underwritten by Ford Motor Company Fund and coordinated by the League of American Orchestras and Meet The Composer that resulted in performances of Joan Tower’s Made in America (2004) and Joseph Schwantner’s Chasing Light… (2008) in all 50 states—a group of smaller-budget orchestras has formed a consortium called New Music for America to commission an orchestral work from Christopher Theofanidis. The composition will be given its world premiere by the Plymouth (Mass.) Philharmonic during the 2015-16 season, with subsequent performances by the co-commissioning orchestras. A $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts will help defray the participating orchestras’ costs. As of mid-December the consortium included orchestras from 28 states. Chairing New Music for America’s steering committee is Robert Rosoff, former executive director of the Glens Falls (N.Y.) Symphony, the orchestra that premiered Tower’s Made in America. To learn more about New Music for America, contact Rosoff at bob.rosoff@gmail.com.
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Craig Mathew/Mathew Imaging
New Music for America
Disney Marks a Decade The Los Angeles Philharmonic launched “insideOUT,” its celebratory tenth-anniversary season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, with a September 30 gala featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma and video installations by Netia Jones; pictured onscreen (above) are Walt and Lillian Disney, whose images were accompanied by “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Disney’s Pinocchio. The previous day, Music Director Gustavo Dudamel led the LA Phil and its six-year-old Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) in their first-ever side-by-side concert (right), an event that was simulcast on a screen outside the hall.
Rebuilding Haiti’s Music School Efforts to rebuild Haiti’s Holy Trinity Music School got a boost this fall with a benefit concert at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. Donato Cabrera— resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and music director of the California and Green Bay (Wisconsin) symphonies—conducted the October 2 concert, which was hosted by soprano Deborah Voigt and presented by Sing with Haiti, a nonprofit based in San Francisco. Performers included mezzo-soprano Young musicians from the Holy Trinity Music Susan Graham, composer/pianist Jake Heggie, and School in Haiti, with Sing With Haiti benefit’s host, Les Petits Chanteurs and Chorale des Fillettes, the Deborah Voigt boys’ and girls’ choirs of Holy Trinity’s Cathedral Music School, which were joined by choirs from eleven San Francisco Bay-area schools. The Holy Trinity Cathedral complex in Port-au-Prince was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. The concert raised $250,000.
symphony
winter 2014