Tag: Artistic Planning

Behind the Scenes with Clement So, Director of Classical Programming at Oregon Symphony

Posted on December 8, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Sunday’s (12/7) Oregon Arts Watch, James Bash writes, “Quite often, guest artists at an Oregon Symphony will play an encore… Now and then I know the encore, but more often than not, I have to ask someone … My go-to ace for such questions is Clement So, the orchestra’s Director of Classical Programming … When I see So at concerts …he is either surveying the situation onstage or surveying the audience or both…. Clement So: I determine the pieces that the orchestra will perform, when we perform, which guest conductors and artists we perform with, all the details of their contracts—and combine everything into each concert that makes up a season. And after I’ve created the programs, I work with the operations and production teams to put on the show. I’m like the party planner. I try to combine all the elements together to make a wonderful experience for the audience. Music Director David Danzmayr is a partner and co-creator in all this. We do this programming together. We think a lot about our audience and what it would enjoy. It’s all about the live performance, the concert experience, the sharing of music.’ ”

It’s Nutcracker Time at Waco Symphony

Posted on December 3, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Monday’s (12/1) Baylor Lariat, the student newspaper of Baylor University in Texas, Olivia Turner writes, “The Nutcracker, one of the nation’s most iconic Christmas traditions, will be making its way to Baylor on Dec. 14 for an annual on-campus performance, featuring the Waco Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Frontier and young local Waco performers. Since 2008, the orchestra and Ballet Frontier, a company based in Fort Worth, have collaborated to present this musical and visual spectacle to Wacoans, making it one of the only Nutcracker performances in Texas to use live orchestral accompaniment. Sue Jacobson, the Waco Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster, said playing live allows for both challenges and flexibility, as the conductor can watch the dancers onstage while conducting, adjusting the tempo to their speed and movements. ‘Our audiences get to see it the way it was intended to be performed, and that is with a live orchestra,’ Jacobson said. This version of the music is for a reduced orchestra [of] around 30 musicians … Ballet Frontier’s Artistic Advisor, Enrica Tseng, said performing with a live orchestra is an opportunity she and the dancers look forward to every year…. ‘It’s always a gift for the community to have high-quality arts,’ Jacobson said.”

New List from Alliance of European Orchestras Highlights Compositions Focusing on the Natural World

Posted on December 1, 2025 by - News Briefs

The European Broadcasting Union, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France have joined forces to create “Renew Reuse Recycle,” a list of repertoire that evokes and explores nature, climate, and sustainability. The extensive list, posted as a downloadable spreadsheet, includes scores by composers past and present working in a richly diverse range of styles and forms. The introduction states: “Thoughtful programming can engage audiences with the natural world and our impact upon it. As cultural institutions it can be tempting to commission our way into an issue; however, composers have been engaging with these topics for centuries. What follows is intended as a living list of works to spark programmers’ imaginations. We intend to update the list regularly.” The introduction cites as one example “Lei Lang, a Chinese American composer whose piece A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams won the 2021 Grawemeyer Award. He writes: ‘It meditates on the loss of landscapes of cultural and spiritual dimensions. The work implies an intention to preserve and resurrect parallel landscapes, where we and our children can belong.’ The list includes some standard repertoire works which complement the more recent work.”

Two World Premieres Plus Podium Debut at Dallas Symphony

Posted on November 24, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Friday’s (11/21) Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell writes, “The Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Thursday night concert made news. Assistant conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg made her unscheduled classical series debut, subbing for music director Fabio Luisi … It was impressive indeed. The concert, at the Meyerson Symphony Center, also included world premieres of … Jonathan Cziner’s Clarinet Concerto, composed for and performed by DSO principal clarinetist Gregory Raden, and the sound of where I came from by Moni Jasmine Guo.” Also on the program were works by Beethoven and Mozart. “[Cziner’s] three-movement clarinet concerto is influenced by both sacred and secular Jewish music, with what Cziner has called ‘my own kind of American orchestral sound. It’s basically about the state of the world for a Jewish American … and how there’s so much conflict and violence and sadness. But the end of the piece is more celebratory.’… the sound of where I came from was inspired by [Guo’s] childhood dialogues with her Chinese grandmother. Motifs echoing cadences of their conversations give listeners aural hooks within often complex washes, swells and swirls of sound, the eight-minute piece finally vanishing in sonic vapor.” the sound of where I came from was commissioned by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra.

Boston Symphony Orchestra Celebrates American Diversity with Orquesta Sinfónico de Puerto Rico, Tania León World Premiere, and More

Posted on November 19, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Wednesday’s (11/18) ArtsFuse.org, Steve Ellman writes, “The Boston Symphony is celebrating American diversity this season … [with] what the orchestra is calling ‘E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One’—a survey of the many voices that comprise American Music…. The first-ever concert in Boston by the Orquesta Sinfónico de Puerto Rico, on Friday November 14 …  brought out … people of Puerto Rican ancestry and people who love its culture, along with … BSO regulars … The program, selected and conducted by the Orquesta’s music director Maximiliano Valdés, carefully combined elements of Puerto Rican vintage and contemporary classical music … and a sort of Puerto Rican Pops program.” Composers included Jack Délano, Alfonso Fuentes, Luis Quintana, Ernesto Cordero, Roberto Sierra, and Angelica Negrón. “This concert was just one of four multicultural programs offered from November 13 to November 15. The BSO itself honored two Latin composers—Havana-born Tania León and Vega Baja (Puerto Rico)-born Roberto Sierra—with generous performances of their works in three subscription concerts led by Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk … Tania León’s ‘Time to Time,’ co-commissioned by the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, had its world premiere in these concerts.” The BSO also performed Sierra’s Concerto for Saxophones with soloist James Carter, for whom it was written.

What Quality Makes Today’s American Orchestral Music American?

Posted on November 14, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Wednesday’s (11/12) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jeremy Reynolds writes, “Quite a few composers are writing quite a lot of music about the America 250 anniversary…. ‘How do we want to mark that? …’ said Julia Wolfe, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer … While … orchestras regularly premiere a new piece of music or several in a season, some have received public grants from the National Endowment for the Arts or other funders specifically to write music commemorating the occasion this season. So, who are the composers being called upon to mark the occasion? Aside from Wolfe, whose piece ‘Liberty Bell’ will be played by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this weekend, there’s John Adams, Wynton Marsalis, Matthew Aucoin, Carlos Simon and Jessie Montgomery. There’s Kevin Puts, Mason Bates, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ellen Reid, Tania Leon, and Michael Abels…. Is there a unifying theme around the kinds of music being written in the classical world that could indicate an ‘American style?’… Critics and scholars toss words like ‘rock’ and ‘minimalism’ and ‘groove’ at [Wolfe’s] music, which, like all composers’, draws on a range of influences … There’s that word ‘minimalism’— it’s one of the dominant strains to emerge from American compositional schools in the past 50 years…. Ask a dozen composers and you’ll get a dozen different answers, but as we continue talking about American music this year, minimalism seems likely to be a recurrent thread.”

Baton Rouge Symphony’s Native American-Themed Concert

Posted on November 13, 2025 by - News Briefs

Tuesday’s (11/11) WBRZ (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), includes an interview in which Baton Rouge Symphony Music Director Adam Johnson and Principal Bassoon Darrel Hale discuss the orchestra’s November 13 concert: “The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s newest program is a showcase of Native American culture. Led by Maestro Adam Johnson, the orchestra’s performance of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9: ‘From the New World’ will be accompanied by Chickasaw Nation member Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s ‘The Ghost of the White Deer’ and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Scenes from The Song of Hiawatha Overture.’ ‘Ghost of the White Deer,’ a retelling of a traditional Chickasaw story, will [feature] principal bassoonist Darrel Hale. BRSO’s performance of the three pieces is on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Raising Cane’s River Center Theatre.”

Springfield Symphony Celebrates Latin Music with the Mambo Kings and Camille Zamora

Posted on November 5, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Tuesday’s (11/4) MassLive.com (Massachusetts), Keith O’Connor writes, “The temperature outside may be cold, but indoors on Saturday at Springfield Symphony Hall it is going to be ‘hot, hot, hot’ as the Springfield Symphony Orchestra plays everything from tangos to mambos to Latin jazz as part of ‘Fiesta Sinfónica.’ The evening will see the return of the Mambo Kings and Camille Zamora, who performed last year during the orchestra’s ‘Havana Nights’ concert…. [Guest conductor Herb] Smith played the trumpet in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for over 20 years and says he tries to ‘be the conductor that I would want to follow.’… The Mambo Kings have been together since 1995 and have become one of the most prominent Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz ensembles in the country. The quintet made their orchestral debut in 1997 with the Rochester Philharmonic and have since appeared with orchestras around the country … A leading interpreter of classical Spanish song, soprano soloist Camille Zamora is performing with the SSO for the third time … ‘I believe passionately that the future of the American symphony lies in opening our concert halls to new audiences, stories, and sounds, without ever losing sight of our essential musical values of excellence and expression,’ Zamora said.”

Pasadena Symphony to Highlight American Music in 2025–26 Season

Posted on November 4, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Friday’s (10/31) San Francisco Classical Voice, Tom Jacobs writes, “In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Pasadena Symphony’s 2025–2026 season is loaded with American music. Brett Mitchell’s second season as music director will feature two co-commissions and two West Coast premieres by American composers, plus classics by Copland and Dvořák’s America-inspired ‘New World Symphony.’… The celebration kicks off on Nov. 8 with ‘Tour de Force,’ a piece by Jim Self, the orchestra’s principal tuba. The performance marks his 50th anniversary with the ensemble.” The concert will also feature works by Berlioz and Ravel. “Edgar Meyer’s 1999 violin concerto, which incorporates bluegrass elements, will follow on Jan. 24 with Tessa Lark as soloist…. Another American work, “Beacon” by Colorado-based composer Jeffrey Nytch, will be presented on Feb. 21…. The Mar. 21 concerts will feature a Pasadena Symphony co-commission: the First Symphony of Mexican American composer Juan Pablo Conteras…. The West Coast premiere of American composer Jennifer Higdon’s Cello Concerto highlights the Apr. 25 concerts … The program also features Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony and the ‘Heroic Overture’ of Dallas-based composer Quinn Mason. The season concludes with another co-commission and West Coast premiere: ‘Rhapsody on “America” ’ by Baltimore-based composer Jonathan Leshnoff, featuring pianist Joyce Yang.”

The New Madison Gamer Symphony: From Screens to Stage

Posted on November 4, 2025 by - News Briefs

In Friday’s (10/31) Madison Magazine, Lily Spanbauer writes, “The Madison Gamer Symphony Orchestra (MGSO) will debut on Nov. 1 with two performances at Madison Youth Arts Center … Audiences will experience music from classic Nintendo games like Super Mario 64 and Donkey Kong, along with tunes from contemporary franchises … MGSO was born one year ago, when Ben Carlee, a doctoral candidate in musical arts, developed the idea as part of coursework for an Arts Entrepreneurship class at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. MGSO is not the first gamer symphony orchestra, but the concept is new in Madison. In the Midwest, there are just a few others, including in the Twin Cities and Des Moines.… MGSO consists of 55 musicians … Carlee hopes to differ from the average symphony orchestra by creating opportunities for musicians from marginalized groups. As a queer Latino performer, Carlee has struggled to find consistent work since moving to Madison for school in the fall of 2022. Madison isn’t the only city that lacks opportunities for diverse musicians. In a 2025 diversity report, the League of American Orchestras found that over 75% of the country’s orchestra musicians are white…. ‘I want to show others, especially those who share my background, that they belong in this field and deserve space on stage,’ Carlee says.”