Composer Charlie Zhong with the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra at the world premiere of his “Stilling Memory.”
In Monday’s (5/20) Arts Atl (Atlanta, Georgia), Jordan Owen writes, “The DeKalb Symphony Orchestra has been in fine form in the course of its 2023-2024 season…. A boon to the orchestra has been its ongoing cultivation of rising youth talent. The DSO’s concert on Tuesday, May 14, saw that formula pay off yet again … The evening opened with the overture to Jean Sibelius’ Karelia, followed by the Romanian folk dances of Béla Bartók…. The orchestra presented the world premiere of Charlie Zhong’s ‘Stilling Memory.’ A DeKalb Symphony commission, it had many of the hallmarks of the preceding works: a rich midrange ambience in the strings, delicate overtones from the winds and precise, nearly imperceptible, accentuations from the pitched percussion…. Zhong is young—still in high school—and already he is a decorated veteran of the classical music competition circuit with prizes from the 2023 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the 2021 National Young Composers Challenge and an honorable mention in the 2023 BMI Composer Awards … The DeKalb Symphony Orchestra has found a new sense of vitality and a fuller, more cohesive sound under the command of maestro Paul Bhasin.” Also on the program was Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with pianist Alexander Wasserman.
