2016–2017 Season Highlights for Boosey & Hawkes Composers
This season ushers in a host of premieres and special celebrations for Boosey & Hawkes composers, including important anniversary celebrations for Steve Reich and John Adams. See below for composer-specific highlights in North, Central, and South America.
(For composer highlights in Europe from Boosey & Hawkes’s London office, click here.)
John Adams
John Adams turns 70 in February 2017, and performances are in place around the world to celebrate this landmark anniversary throughout the season. The West Coast hosts a string of celebrations surrounding the California-based composer’s actual birthdate, beginning with San Francisco Symphony’s weeklong focus (February 16–25) and followed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s presentation of Nixon in China, conducted by the composer in early March. As composer-in-residence at the Berliner Philharmoniker, Adams will conduct the orchestra in several concerts; the orchestra will also perform many of his most important works throughout the season, including The Gospel According to the Other Mary and City Noir.
Additional anniversary highlights include performances in London and France of Scheherazade.2 as conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra and violinist Leila Josefowicz; presentations of Absolute Jest with the New York Philharmonic in New York, London and Hamburg; the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing Dr. Atomic in concert; and the St. Louis Symphony bringing The Gospel According to the Other Mary to Carnegie Hall. His new opera with librettist Peter Sellars, Girls of the Golden West, which is set during the 1850s California Gold Rush, will receive its world premiere at San Francisco Opera in fall 2017.
Enrico Chapela has two significant orchestral world premieres this fall. Antikythera, which is inspired by an ancient mechanical device used to calculate the position of the stars and planets in the sky, will be performed by the Boca del Río Philharmonic Orchestra in Veracruz on November 4. Lunática, which adapts information about the moons of our solar system, premieres with UNAM’s Philharmonic Orchestra at Mexico City’s Sala Nezahualcóyotl on December 18 and 19.
In May, Unsuk Chin serves as a mentor for Soundstreams’s 2017 Emerging Composer Workshop in Toronto, which is produced in partnership with The Royal Conservatory of Music’s 21C Music Festival. The end of her residency will be marked by a concert of her music in Koerner Hall, including Cantatrix Sopranica.
Tim Munro performs the world premiere of Brett Dean’s Notes from the twitterverse at Miller Theatre in November. In April, Dean performs viola with pianist Juho Pohjonen in the world premiere of Rooms of Elsinore at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Rooms of Elsinore is in fact connected to his opera Hamlet, which premieres at Glyndebourne Opera in June 2017—the chamber work is conceived as a tour of the main settings and locations of the opera in a series of miniatures.
Gruber’s Piano Concerto receives its world premiere with Emanuel Ax and the New York Philharmonic led by Alan Gilbert on January 5. In December, the composer takes to the stage to conduct the US premiere of into the open … with the New World Symphony, featuring percussionist Colin Currie as soloist.
Holloway’s Europa & the Bull receives its first US performance at Davies Symphony Hall on March 23 with tuba player Jeffrey Anderson and the San Francisco Symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas.
Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) puts on its annual concert in January celebrating the work of Karl Jenkins at Carnegie Hall. This year, the performance features the US premiere of Cantata Memoria for chorus and orchestra, written to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan tragedy, in which a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan killed 116 children and 28 adults. (More info on Cantata Memoria here.)
David T. Little has been honored with a William Bolcom residency at the University of Michigan this season. His opera Dog Days, which received much acclaim at the 2016 PROTOTYPE Festival and has since been performed internationally, is being presented there in October alongside additional concerts of Little’s works Radiant Child and Charm. The world-premiere recording of the Dog Days releases on September 9 as a digital album on VIA Records. (More information about the Dog Days album here.)
Little’s opera Soldier Songs receives its West Coast premiere with San Diego Opera and conductor Steven Schick, and is also performed at Des Moines Metro Opera.
The Pittsburgh Symphony honors James MacMillan as its Composer of the Year, presenting his work in three concerts taking place in October and February, including the US premiere of his Symphony No. 4. The symphony, which was commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Berkeley Symphony, will also be performed by the Berkeley Symphony in December. In February, Resonance Works Pittsburgh will perform the US premiere of Gloria.
Einojuhani Rautavaara passed away this past July. His Fantasia for solo violin and orchestra will receive its world premiere in March by violinist Anne Akiko Myers and the Kansas City Symphony at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
This season will see worldwide celebrations of Steve Reich’s 80th birthday, guided by performances of two new major works—Pulse and Runner. Pulse—commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Barbican, KölnMusik–Kölner Philharmonie and Philharmonie de Paris—premieres at Carnegie Hall on November 1 and then travels to the London for its UK premiere given by Britten Sinfonia led by Clark Rundell. Performances by Ensemble Modern follow in Paris, Cologne, and in the ZaterdagMatinee series in Amsterdam, and by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The ensemble work Runner premieres at London’s Royal Ballet on November 10, accompanied by a new ballet choreographed by Wayne McGregor, who has created several dance works to music by the composer. Runner will also be presented in concert in upcoming seasons by co-commissioners Signal, Ensemble Modern, Cal Performances and Washington Performing Arts / Ensemble. (More info on Pulse and Runner here.)
Several presenters have announced special concert series and residencies to honor his anniversary, including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Miller Theatre, Lincoln Center and San Francisco Symphony. Additionally, a performance of Different Trains will be performed at Liverpool Train Station to commemorate the first ever passenger train journey between Liverpool and Manchester. The performance will be accompanied by film for the first time ever, created by Bill Morrison.
This season sees the much anticipated world premiere of Rouse’s Fifth Symphony in February with the Dallas Symphony and Jaap van Zweden. The work will have additional performances with its other co-commissioners: the Nashville Symphony with Giancarlo Guerrero and the Aspen Music Festival and School with Robert Spano.
Rouse also will serve as composer-in-residence at the Eugene Symphony throughout the season. His Organ Concerto receives its world premiere at the Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra, organist Paul Jacobs, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Magiya—Shepherd’s celebrated orchestra work from 2013 for the inaugural year of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA—will receive performances through the season with several North American orchestras, including Florida Orchestra and Oregon Symphony in January, The Rochester Philharmonic in March, and Orchestra symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano in May, who give the piece its Canadian premiere.
The Emerson String Quartet tours the world with Turnage’s new string quartet, Shroud, beginning with the world premiere in September in Akron, with an additional performances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, and the Segerstrom Centre. Also this season, Turnage’s Duetti d’Amore receives its US premiere in April at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
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