“Music Director Robert Spano begins his 18th season leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Sept. 20 with an opening-night concert featuring Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto,” writes Jon Ross in Thursday’s (9/13) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “That Romantic beginning, featuring guest pianist Kirill Gerstein, belies the importance of new music to the 2018-19 season. Over the next eight months, the ensemble will perform past ASO commissions by six contemporary composers. One of Spano’s biggest legacies is his commitment to new music. During the season, the orchestra will play works by Christopher Theofanidis (Nov. 15), Jennifer Higdon and Alex Turley (both on Jan. 24), Michael Gandolfi (April 4), and Richard Prior and James Oliverio (both on May 9)…. According to Evans Mirageas, the ASO’s vice president for artistic planning, performing a limited number of new composers is by design…. ‘What we have done is that by focusing, we have created an audience.’ Last year, the ASO’s new music programming trained inward, focusing on bassist Michael Kurth and his compositions, which the symphony had been commissioning since 2011…. The ASO and the ASO Chorus recorded [several] of Kurth’s original compositions for release in 2019. At the end of this season, the ASO will record another album of commissions.”
Posted September 14, 2018
