Adventurous Music
The student orchestra, shown here performing in Sayles Hall, has won the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming seven times since 1994.
Credit: Scott KingsleyOrchestra makes its mark with tomorrow’s classics
The Brown University Orchestra has won an Adventurous Programming Award from ASCAP and the
League of American Orchestras.
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June 9, 2009 |
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The Brown University Orchestra (BUO) is one of 26 American orchestras that was honored this month with a 2008–2009 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the League of American Orchestras present the awards each year to orchestras of all sizes for programs that challenge the audience, build the repertoire, and increase interest in music of our time.
The announcement marks the seventh time the BUO has received this honor in the last 15 years. It is conductor Paul Phillips’s ninth time receiving the award. Brown was recognized in the Collegiate Orchestras category, along with Cornell Orchestras and Peabody Symphony and Concert Orchestras.
“It’s a great honor to be selected for this award,” said Phillips, “and a tribute to the outstanding members of the orchestra, who have given superlative, committed performances of challenging new works all year long.”
During the 2008-09 season, the BUO featured a contemporary American composition in each of its subscription concerts, continuing the orchestra’s longstanding commitment to performing and championing new music by American composers. The contemporary pieces were performed alongside works by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, and other great composers of the past.
The BUO performed works by Christopher Rouse, John Adams, Joseph Schwantner, and Brown music professor Gerald Shapiro, including the Rhode Island premieres of the works by Rouse, Adams, and Schwantner, and the world premiere of Shapiro’s new piece. The works by Schwantner and Shapiro were both commissioned by the orchestra – the former, Chasing Light…, as part of the Ford Made in America project and the latter, (r)EVOLVe, as a solo commission by the BUO to mark the bicentennial of Charles Darwin. Shapiro’s work was premiered at a concert celebrating the births of Darwin and Abraham Lincoln (represented by Copland’s Lincoln Portrait narrated by President Ruth J. Simmons and Watson Institute Visiting Fellow Lincoln Chafee ’75) 200 years earlier on the same day, February 12.
“I strongly believe that it is vital for orchestras to play music of our time in order for symphonic music to remain a living art form,” Phillips said.
Phillips plans to continue his “adventurous programming” with future composer residencies, readings, and performances of student compositions, and other activities that may include issuing recordings of works by contemporary American composers.
The announcement marks the seventh time the BUO has received this honor in the last 15 years. It is conductor Paul Phillips’s ninth time receiving the award. Brown was recognized in the Collegiate Orchestras category, along with Cornell Orchestras and Peabody Symphony and Concert Orchestras.
“It’s a great honor to be selected for this award,” said Phillips, “and a tribute to the outstanding members of the orchestra, who have given superlative, committed performances of challenging new works all year long.”
During the 2008-09 season, the BUO featured a contemporary American composition in each of its subscription concerts, continuing the orchestra’s longstanding commitment to performing and championing new music by American composers. The contemporary pieces were performed alongside works by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, and other great composers of the past.
The BUO performed works by Christopher Rouse, John Adams, Joseph Schwantner, and Brown music professor Gerald Shapiro, including the Rhode Island premieres of the works by Rouse, Adams, and Schwantner, and the world premiere of Shapiro’s new piece. The works by Schwantner and Shapiro were both commissioned by the orchestra – the former, Chasing Light…, as part of the Ford Made in America project and the latter, (r)EVOLVe, as a solo commission by the BUO to mark the bicentennial of Charles Darwin. Shapiro’s work was premiered at a concert celebrating the births of Darwin and Abraham Lincoln (represented by Copland’s Lincoln Portrait narrated by President Ruth J. Simmons and Watson Institute Visiting Fellow Lincoln Chafee ’75) 200 years earlier on the same day, February 12.
“I strongly believe that it is vital for orchestras to play music of our time in order for symphonic music to remain a living art form,” Phillips said.
Phillips plans to continue his “adventurous programming” with future composer residencies, readings, and performances of student compositions, and other activities that may include issuing recordings of works by contemporary American composers.