“In the early 2000s, American composer Joan Tower thought she was done writing for orchestra,” writes Zoë Madonna in Sunday’s (2/4) Boston Globe. “She had decided to shift her attention [to] ‘chamber music, soloists, whatever,’ Tower said…. Then she received an intriguing offer. A consortium of 65 American smaller-budget professional and community orchestras, including at least one from every state, had banded together and secured support to commission a nationally renowned composer to write a piece,” through the League of American Orchestras’ Ford Made in America project. “The result was ‘Made in America,’ a 15-minute symphonic tapestry woven through with fragments of ‘America the Beautiful.’ It will close out Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s Jordan Hall evening-length ‘Joan Tower Celebration’ on Feb. 9, just one in a cluster of upcoming local performances of Tower’s music hailing her 80th birthday…. From Feb. 8 to Feb. 13, Tower will have a residency at New England Conservatory…. Tower … makes it a personal mission to support younger female composers … and she is outspoken about gender disparities in classical music…. Her residency will begin with a performance by members of an NEC group called Students Advocating for Gender Equality, followed by an all-female panel on women and leadership.”
Posted February 8, 2018
