Major Symphonies Present Crowden Alumni Composers

San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented world premieres by three Crowden alumni composers this spring.

The San Francisco Symphony premiered a new work by SAMUEL CARL ADAMS (’00), comissioned by the Symphony, earlier this spring. ESA-PEKKA SOLONEN conducted the premiere of No Such Spring, featuring pianist (and former Crowden Sundays @ Four guest artist) CONOR HANICK , to critical acclaim, with San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman calling it “ingenious and often beautiful.” Just one week later, San Francisco Symphony shone a spotlight on Crowden alum composer GABRIELLA SMITH ( ’ 05, John Adams Young Composers Program), performing her Tumblebird Contrails at Davies Hall and on its European tour, in Paris, Luxembourg, and Hamburg. (Samuel and Gabriella also composed the two new commissions in honor of Crowden’s 40th anniversary.)

In Southern California, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented two world premieres of Crowden composers this May. First, a world premiere of John Adams Young Composers alum DYLAN MATTINGLY ’ S six-hour opera Stranger Love, an LA Phil commission, at Walt Disney Hall. The New York Times profiled Dylan and the “singular, tender, euphoric, hypnotic opera,” which received rave reviews as “the LA Phil at its finest.” Just five days later, the same evening as our Capybaraology premiere, the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiered another commission from Gabriella Smith, Lost Coast, with conductor GUSTAVO DUDAMEL and cellist GABRIEL CABEZAS . Lost Coast also met with high esteem from critics, with the Los Angeles Times applauding, “the concerto reveals, with marvel and magnificence, the essential nuance between the indeterminacy of nature’s rhythm and the chaos of our climate interference.”