The Chicago Symphony’s legendary brass section is what many people hear in their heads when they talk about the “Chicago Sound.” In February, four of those brass musicians took the spotlight with the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto at Chicago’s Symphony Center. Music Director Riccardo Muti and the CSO then took the concerto on the road to Carnegie Hall during the orchestra’s East Coast tour later the same month. The concerto is a co-commission, and in April, low-brass members of the Philadelphia Orchestra played it; in 2019 the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform it. It’s been a big year for composer Jennifer Higdon. In February, she won a Grammy Award for her Viola Concerto, recorded by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra with soloist Roberto Díaz. In March, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra premiered her new Tuba Concerto, featuring Principal Tuba Craig Knox as soloist. In April she was awarded the $100,000 Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University. And in May, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra will premiere her Harp Concerto, with soloist Yolanda Kondonassis, in Rochester, New York.
