X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X was a groundbreaking work. Its 1986 premiere marked a significant moment for both the composer and the opera world. X finally graced the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in late 2023, further – if belatedly – recognizing the opera’s impact. And in early 2024 it was eagerly welcomed by Seattle audiences.
Beyond its artistic merit, X proved to be a powerful social force. Performances in Seattle drew a notably diverse audience, especially for a region of historically lower diversity. This alone suggests that contemporary opera has the potential to go beyond traditional boundaries and engage a wider range of people when tackling relevant and thought-provoking themes. The success of X serves as a beacon of hope, demonstrating that opera can evolve and stay relevant in an ever-changing cultural landscape.
Bright Sheng, a name familiar to SSO audiences, sat down with the Gathering Note earlier this month. The composer was in town to hear the orchestra perform two of his short pieces. One of them, Prelude to Black Swan, a world premiere. The other, Shanghai Overture, a Seattle premiere.
Sheng came onto the classical music scene in the 1980’s when he and a number of other Chinese composers settled in New York to continue their studies and also begin careers. A young Gerard Schwarz noticed the composer, commissioned a piece for his chamber orchestra, and helped launch Sheng’s career.
Schwarz and Sheng’s creative partnership has resulted in countless commissions and premieres, and two stints for the composer as Seattle’s composer in residence.
Stephen Stubbs. Photo courtesy Pacific Musicworks.
It’s been a busy week for Cornish College, the college’s faculty, and one of the school’s talented soon to be graduates. A new president was unveiled — a violist — Nancy Uscher. That evening student composer Alexander Bishop’s music for viola was the focus at Poncho Hall. Toward the end of the week — innovative guitarist and Cornish faculty member Michael Nicolella took to the Nordstrom Recital Hall stage as part of the Seattle Classical Guitar Series. Up the hill at St. James Cathedral, Steven Stubbs (who has been tasked with building an early music program at Cornish) led the first historically accurate performance of Monteverdi’s path blazing 1610 Vespers. Continue reading Week in classical music: Alexander Bishop, Michael Nicolella, and Monteverdi
Local composer Nat Evans has embarked on a project that fuses nature, music, community, and subjectivity of experience. Sunrise September 18, 2010 is a completely new piece of music written by Evans. It is a site specific, time specific, event specific work experienced differently by everyone who participates in the premiere. Listeners will gather at before 6:30 am on the 18th at Kite Hill in Magnuson Park. This is also the location which inspired the work and will be the vantage point for the sunrise and the premiere.
At exactly 6:30 am (the time the sun will rise up over the Cascades) Evans will give the cue and everyone will press play on their iPod, Zune, Walkman, CD player, or any other device people choose. Participants will be hearing Sunrise, while watching the sun rise. Sunrise will be recorded before the 18th and distributed to people who let the composer know they want to participate. All participants have to do is download the music, load it onto their favorite media player, and show up on the 18th at Kite Hill.
The idea for this new work originated from the composer’s experience with Zen and how the tradition treats natural cycles like sunrise and sunset. Just as important Evans says, is how individuals experience these cycles. “Over the years I became interested in how we interact with these cycles,” Evans remarked. He elaborated further, “there is also the tradition in Indian classical music that certain pieces are to be played at specific times of the day, even specific times of the year.” Evans took these ideas, put pen to paper, and wrote Sunrise.
Evans is one of Seattle’s talented, up and coming composers. I had the good fortune of introducing a piece of his at the May Day, May Day festival. The concept behind Sunrise is so interesting to me, I asked Evans if he would want to participate in The Five. He obliged. His answers follow the jump.
Oh, and if you want to hear Sunrise, email Evans at NathanielFEvans@gmail.com and he’ll send you a link for the download. See you at Kite Hill on the 18th!
Evans’ responses to my five questions are after the jump.
The poetry of teenaged Jewish boys imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp will be given new life in the oratorio “Vedem,” by composer Lori Laitman and librettist David Mason. “Vedem” will receive its world premiere at Music of Remembrance’s spring concert on Monday evening, May 10 at 8:00 PM in Benaroya Recital Hall.
Terezín (aka Theresienstadt) is an old Czech fortress town which the Nazis turned into a transit camp during the Holocaust. 144,000 Jews were sent to Terezín, including many from the arts and letters. One-quarter of the prisoners died there, and two-thirds were later killed in the death camps. Yet they created an astounding cultural life in Terezín, which existed right alongside starvation, cold, overcrowding, disease, and death. Continue reading MOR commissions Vedem; receives world premiere next week
The Third Angle New Music Ensemble will play several works by Jennifer Higdon in its upcoming concert this Friday at 7:30 pm at the Old Church in downtown Portland. Higdon’s music has been much in demand by vocal and instrumental ensembles, and she has garnered a couple of Grammys as well. I talked with Higdon last week about her life and work.
You have done many residencies over the past few years; so where do you call home?
Higdon: I’ve lived in Philadelphia for the past 22 years; so I think of it as my home base. This is the first year in a while that I haven’t been in residence with an orchestra. I couldn’t squeeze it into my schedule.
Gathering Note 