Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) Completes 12th Season with Five World Premieres
Lisa Bielawa's final appearance as Composer-in-Residence premieres her In medias res
By: Erica H. Adams - May 17, 2009
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) Completes 12th Season -Five world premieres Lisa Bielawa's final appearance as Composer-in-Residence premieres her In medias res Boston, Friday, May 22nd, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) presents five world premieres at Jordan Hall, 8 PM (30 Gainsborough Street). Distinctive styles of five composers will wake up your ears. The evening offers a rare, "uniquely in-depth look at the music that is being composed this year" Gil Rose, Artistic Director/Conductor of BMOP. The free pre-performance talk begins at 7:00 p.m. World premieres by adventurous New England-based composers Geoffrey Gordon, Thomas Oboe Lee, Eric Moe and Lewis Spratlan are highlighted by Lisa Bielawa (In medias res, Concerto for Orchestra) in her final appearance as BMOP's 2006-2009 Music Alive Composer-in-Residence. "A piece composed for BMOP and Boston - it epitomizes and pays tribute to her extraordinary ability to build communities wherever she travels." Gil Rose said. In media res is a narrative told in musical flashbacks like cinema or epic poetry. "This piece is, in essence, my thank you and farewell gift to Gil Rose, the players of BMOP, and the entire Boston music community," explains Bielawa. "They've all welcomed and integrated me into their lives with open arms." Interviewed last week, Bielawa said the arts have an urgent role. It's important to build community, be socially useful and not to simply entertain but, 'invade and inhabit people's ears in a way that's not functional." Bielawa underlined "Music is stubbornly abstract" and "creates avenues for beauty and non-utility" that responds to "need for a life-giving aspect of art making." Bielawa leaves her BMOP 'family' of three years, for Italy as the 2009 Rome Prize winner by the American Academy in Rome. Premieres and BMOP commissions* offer diverse approaches to new music composers Geoffrey Gordon, Thomas Oboe Lee, Eric Moe and Lewis Spratlan: Geoffrey Gordon's 14 minute "Shock Diamonds" was inspired by the 'radiant' beauty of science, specifically, diamond patterns formed in shock waves in the exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion systems. Current composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House, Gordon's work's been described as "a cosmic beauty…of acutely crafted music" (Chicago Tribune). Thomas Oboe Lee's "..bisbigliando..."* translates as 'whispering" and begins with a 'rolled chord' into " a very pianissimo piece -quiet perhaps for almost the entire work -with of course occasional forte moments for dramatic effects." Professor of Music at Boston College since 1990, Lee was born in China, educated at New England Conservatory of Music and Harvard University. Eric Moe's Kick & Ride* performed with percussionist Robert Schulz references musical forms from West African to surfer-rock classic "Wipeout" and jazz. Named for a drum set's 'kick drum and ride cymbal' Moe creates an unpredictable relationship between drums and orchestra. Currently, Moe is Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh. Lewis Spratlan's A Summer's Day* opens as a hymn to summer solstice then, sketches vignettes of summer through an open window of humidity, serene evenings, crickets, naps, basketballs games, soft breezes and distant storms. Spratlan is a Pulitzer-Prize winning composer who has been on the Amherst College faculty since 1970. About The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) BMOP has had an outstanding reputation amongst Boston's most innovative and performing arts organizations for attracting multi-generational audiences and providing thematic, diversified programming, and a national reputation for performing and recording new orchestral music at the highest level. Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Gil Rose, BMOP strives to illuminate the connections that exist between both contemporary music and society by reuniting composers and audiences in a shared concert experience. In addition, BMOP's signature recording label, BMOP/sound, recently earned a Grammy® nomination for the 2008 release of Charles Fussell: Wilde. New CDs are being released on a monthly basis with eleven CDs slated for 2009. In just 12 years, BMOP has received 10 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Orchestral Music including the 2006-2007 ASCAP Award for Programming of Contemporary Music, and the 2006 American Symphony Orchestra League's John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music. http://www.bmop.org Ticket Information: Tickets range from $10 - $52. Students 50% discount. Seniors 10% discount. FREE pre-concert talk @ 7:00 pm. For tickets, call Jordan Hall 617.585.1260 or visit www.newenglandconservatory.edu/jordanhall. Tickets are also available for sale at the Jordan Hall Box Office three weeks before the concert and at the door, subject to availability.
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) Completes 12th Season -Five world premieres
Lisa Bielawa's final appearance as Composer-in-Residence premieres her In medias res
Boston, Friday, May 22nd, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) presents five world premieres at Jordan Hall, 8 PM (30 Gainsborough Street). Distinctive styles of five composers will wake up your ears.
The evening offers a rare, "uniquely in-depth look at the music that is being composed this year" Gil Rose, Artistic Director/Conductor of BMOP. The free pre-performance talk begins at 7:00 p.m.
World premieres by adventurous New England-based composers Geoffrey Gordon, Thomas Oboe Lee, Eric Moe and Lewis Spratlan are highlighted by Lisa Bielawa (In medias res, Concerto for Orchestra) in her final appearance as BMOP's 2006-2009 Music Alive Composer-in-Residence. "A piece composed for BMOP and Boston - it epitomizes and pays tribute to her extraordinary ability to build communities wherever she travels." Gil Rose said.
In media res is a narrative told in musical flashbacks like cinema or epic poetry. "This piece is, in essence, my thank you and farewell gift to Gil Rose, the players of BMOP, and the entire Boston music community," explains Bielawa. "They've all welcomed and integrated me into their lives with open arms."
Interviewed last week, Bielawa said the arts have an urgent role. It's important to build community, be socially useful and not to simply entertain but, 'invade and inhabit people's ears in a way that's not functional." Bielawa underlined "Music is stubbornly abstract" and "creates avenues for beauty and non-utility" that responds to "need for a life-giving aspect of art making." Bielawa leaves her BMOP 'family' of three years, for Italy as the 2009 Rome Prize winner by the American Academy in Rome.
Premieres and BMOP commissions* offer diverse approaches to new music composers Geoffrey Gordon, Thomas Oboe Lee, Eric Moe and Lewis Spratlan:
Geoffrey Gordon's 14 minute "Shock Diamonds" was inspired by the 'radiant' beauty of science, specifically, diamond patterns formed in shock waves in the exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion systems. Current composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House, Gordon's work's been described as "a cosmic beautyÂ…of acutely crafted music" (Chicago Tribune).
Thomas Oboe Lee's "..bisbigliando..."* translates as 'whispering" and begins with a 'rolled chord' into " a very pianissimo piece -quiet perhaps for almost the entire work -with of course occasional forte moments for dramatic effects." Professor of Music at Boston College since 1990, Lee was born in China, educated at New England Conservatory of Music and Harvard University.
Eric Moe's Kick & Ride* performed with percussionist Robert Schulz references musical forms from West African to surfer-rock classic "Wipeout" and jazz. Named for a drum set's 'kick drum and ride cymbal' Moe creates an unpredictable relationship between drums and orchestra. Currently, Moe is Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh.
Lewis Spratlan's A Summer's Day* opens as a hymn to summer solstice then, sketches vignettes of summer through an open window of humidity, serene evenings, crickets, naps, basketballs games, soft breezes and distant storms. Spratlan is a Pulitzer-Prize winning composer who has been on the Amherst College faculty since 1970.
About The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP)
BMOP has had an outstanding reputation amongst Boston's most innovative and performing arts organizations for attracting multi-generational audiences and providing thematic, diversified programming, and a national reputation for performing and recording new orchestral music at the highest level. Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Gil Rose, BMOP strives to illuminate the connections that exist between both contemporary music and society by reuniting composers and audiences in a shared concert experience. In addition, BMOP's signature recording label, BMOP/sound, recently earned a Grammy® nomination for the 2008 release of Charles Fussell: Wilde. New CDs are being released on a monthly basis with eleven CDs slated for 2009. In just 12 years, BMOP has received 10 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Orchestral Music including the 2006-2007 ASCAP Award for Programming of Contemporary Music, and the 2006 American Symphony Orchestra League's John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music. http://www.bmop.org
Ticket Information:
Tickets range from $10 - $52. Students 50% discount. Seniors 10% discount. FREE pre-concert talk @ 7:00 pm. For tickets, call Jordan Hall 617.585.1260 or visit www.newenglandconservatory.edu/jordanhall. Tickets are also available for sale at the Jordan Hall Box Office three weeks before the concert and at the door, subject to availability.