Thursday, October 16, 2008

Chasing Light... premiere!

Download Reno Nevada

The Reno Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Ted Kuchar, presented the premiere performance of Chasing Light… on Saturday, September 20, 2008, in Nightingale Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada Reno. The orchestra’s ambitious program included Beethoven’s Overture to the Creatures of Prometheus, followed by two of my works, separated by some twenty-six years. “Chasing Light…” completed in 2007 and “New Morning for the World” for narrator and orchestra, written in 1982. This perspective provided the audience a broad quarter-century perspective of my music. The final work was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor. The orchestra then repeated the concert on that Sunday afternoon.

The orchestra’s ability to navigate this challenging program was impressive and I was delighted by the spirit, energy and commitment they displayed. It was a special pleasure to hear principal oboist, Andrea Lenz give a beautiful performance of the extended solo in the third movement of Chasing Light.. Narrator Andrew Green’s sympathetic and dramatic narration of the texts of Martin Luther King, Jr., in New Morning for the World, was especially dramatic and compelling.

Following the concerts in Reno, I attended performances by the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Conductor, Lonnie Klein led his ensemble in two spirited performances of Chasing Light… Like similar ensembles in the Ford Made in America consortium, the Las Cruces Symphony is comprised of professional, semipro as well as some student musicians. The support for the orchestra by the community was phenomenal– their orchestra’s entire season is completely sold-out.