This past weekend’s concerts were built around pieces that had a very good amount of percussion in them, including the centerpiece of the concert, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto, with the Scottish percussion soloist Colin Currie. Percussion instruments are always great for audiences to see and hear in a featured role – you don’t often get
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Jennifer Higdon, who has a familial connection to Portland, will be returning to oversee the Oregon Symphony rehearsals and performances of her Percussion Concerto (2005), with percussion superstar Colin Currie. It will be a great pleasure to see her, and I hope to have some sort of special blog feature on her available during that
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The accolades just keep rolling in for Jennifer Higdon, who long ago shed her designation as merely a female composer and is now one of the most performed living composers in the world today. Today she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto (written for the violinist Hilary Hahn). Here’s a
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
On heels of the Percussion Concerto receiving a GRAMMY, and its being programmed on next year’s Oregon Symphony season, I thought it might be nice to get a preview. Here’s Colin Currie (who will play the piece here in Portland) with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. This appears to be a cadenza with participation from the
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto (which will be performed by Colin Currie and the Oregon Symphony next season) has won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition! The recording which was nominated and won featured Colin Currie and Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s available on the London Philharmonic’s own label.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Oregon Symphony Resident conductor Gregory Vajda conducts a recording of music by his mentor, the composer/conductor Péter Eötvös, entitled As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams. The recording is one of three nominated for the prestigious 2010 MIDEM Classical Award. Conductor Leonard Slatkin has a compelling essay up on his website detailing his experience of
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I’ll leave the reviews to the professionals, but last night’s Evening With Jennifer Higdon concert presented by the Third Angle New Music Ensemble was one of the most enjoyable evenings of music that I’ve been to in quite some time. It was great to have a few minutes to chat with Jennifer talk shop for
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I first met Jennifer when I was going to graduate school in Philadelphia in 1991. I was looking (with little success) for some freelance gigs when a composer friend (the composer/conductor Troy Peters) said that the Penn Orchestra was looking for ringers to fill out their viola section. I took the gig and showed up
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I’ve been pondering Ron Blessinger’s thoughts on the 2008-2009 season programming at the OSO, and the more I think about it, the more I wish there were not only works by living composers, but that there were works which have received their first performances at least since 1995. Why 1995? Because this is my blog,
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
