In Sunday’s (9/7) New York Times, Phillip Lutz writes about Toshiyuki Shimada, in his fifth season as music director and conductor of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and tenth season at the Yale Symphony Orchestra. “Shimada, 62, has quietly established a reputation for programming adventurous fare, staging groundbreaking productions and plucking people from relative obscurity for high-profile tasks, all while drawing liberally on musicians with Yale pedigrees to fill needs at Eastern Connecticut. That reputation promises to be burnished this season with his scheduling at Eastern Connecticut of a raft of contemporary works, among them four by living composers: ‘Aureole’ by Augusta Read Thomas; ‘A Little Danielade,’ by Giya Kancheli; ‘The Chairman Dances,’ by John Adams; and ‘The Canyons Curved Burgundy,’ a world premiere by the Yale graduate William Brittelle.… The hope, [Shimada] said, is that the orchestra may attract ‘a younger audience seeking to have works closer to their generation,’ one drawn from college students and artistically aware patrons of music clubs.… Part of the strategy this year is to program more works that are shorter. The Brittelle piece, which will run about eight minutes, is part of a concert consisting entirely of brief works.”
Posted September 9, 2014
