Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Edward T. Cone Composition Institute

Remembering JoAnn Falletta A Generous Maestro

JoAnn Falletta is one of the nicest, most generous people in the business. Not only did she make time to drop by my morning radio shows during her summer visits to Princeton to conduct the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composition Institute concerts and to participate in multiple phone interviews for my syndicated radio program, “The Lost Chord,” but she’s actually gone out of her way to send me related material herself from her home. Where does she find the time? She’s in demand everywhere, and she’s constantly learning new material. The last time I saw her was at an all-Lukas Foss concert at Carnegie Hall last year. (The music was recorded, so a CD will materialize on Naxos at some point, I expect very soon.) She’s always on the lookout for worthy unusual and neglected repertoire. Is it any wonder I feel as if we are totally simpatico? Falletta’s recordings are well-represented on my radio programs and in my CD library. She holds a special place in my heart. Happy birthday, JoAnn Falletta! Thank you for your curiosity, your energy, your artistry, and your munificence.

I almost forgot, I’ve got one of our interviews preserved on Soundcloud!

February 27, 2024
Bora Yoon Premieres Orchestral Work at Princeton

When Bora Yoon’s “The Wind of Two Koreas” is performed at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Saturday, July 20, it will be unique among her body of works.

Yoon, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, describes herself as an interdisciplinary composer. Typically her works assimilate classical, electronic, and cross-cultural elements and employ unconventional instruments and technologies. In this instance, however, she will be taking a more traditional approach, though not to the detriment of exploring some of her usual artistic concerns.

In her first purely orchestral piece, Yoon will continue to draw musical connections to her heritage as an American of Korean descent and all of the paradoxical tensions she finds therein. But she’ll also be measuring herself against the early works of Igor Stravinsky.

Yoon’s new piece will be heard on a concert that is the public face of this year’s New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, which will be held from July 15 through July 20.

The Cone Institute, now in its sixth year, brings together representatives of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton University Music Department to offer four emerging composers a unique laboratory experience.

You can read more about it, Yoon, and the concert, in my article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today.

https://princetoninfo.com/a-premiere-for-princeton-composers-symphonic-expression/

July 10, 2019
JoAnn Falletta Returns to WPRB

I am very pleased to announce that JoAnn Falletta has agreed to return as my guest this week on WPRB.

Falletta is in Princeton as part of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. Four emerging composers will have their works rehearsed and performed by the NJSO, participate in masterclasses with Institute Director Steven Mackey, receive feedback from NJSO musicians, and benefit from career-building advice from music-industry leaders.

Falletta will help mentor the composers and then conduct the orchestra in representative works by Noah Kaplan, Sam Lipman, Alyssa Weinberg, and another former Classic Ross Amico guest, Saad Haddad, alongside Mackey’s “Four Iconoclastic Episodes.” The concert, which is open to the public, will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Saturday at 8 p.m.

Tune in to WPRB this Thursday morning at 9:00 to hear Falletta talk about the institute and some of her other projects. As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, she’s always very busy, with plenty of concerts, festivals and recordings in the pipeline. Falletta has championed dozens of works that could easily be classified as unusual and neglected. She is also an indefatigable champion of new music.

To celebrate her return to Princeton, we’ll enjoy a full morning of her recordings, including selections from new releases of music by Richard Strauss and Vítězslav Novák on the Naxos label. Mark your calendars for another Falletta Fest on Classic Ross Amico, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

Meet the composer, Saad Haddad:

http://www.njsymphony.org/about-njso/newsroom/in-the-news/meet-the-cone-institute-composers-saad-haddad

July 12, 2017
NJSO Institute: Launching New Composers

“There are three facets to the mentoring – artistic, practical, and career development,” says composer Steven Mackey, director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. “If you’re writing for your friends, it’s one thing. When you’re dealing with an orchestra, it really becomes a big business. Orchestral rehearsal time costs so much. Gaining the trust of an orchestra to get your music played is already a huge endeavor. It requires a lot of people to put their faith in you.”

For four composers at the beginning of their careers, the institute is an invaluable experience – six days of intensive evaluations and consultations, culminating in a live performance of their music by a major symphony orchestra under a world-class conductor. The program, now in its third year, brings together the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton University Department of Music to promote new music and emerging composers.

This year’s participants include James Anderson, Matthew Browne, William Stackpole and Jung Yoon Wie. An NJSO concert made up of each composer’s music will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium.

The orchestra will be under the baton of David Robertson, who in the fall will begin his 12th season as music director of the St. Louis Symphony. Robertson is also chief conductor and artistic director of Australia’s Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Mackey’s “Turn the Key,” written in 2006 for the New World Symphony on the occasion of the opening of the Miami Performing Arts Center, will conclude the Saturday concert.

Also on the program will be Anderson’s “Places with Pillars,” a metaphorical reflection on the search for meaning in our lives; Browne’s “Farthest South,” a tone poem inspired by the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration; Stackpole’s “… Ask Questions Later,” a meditation on gun violence and the permanence of consequences; and Wie’s “Water Prism,” inspired by the phenomenon of light passing through a prism to create a rainbow.

You can read more about the institute – and tomorrow night’s concert – in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/07/classical_music_njso_performin.html

Participants in this year’s NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute: Jung Yoon Wie (top); left to right, James Anderson, William Stackpole and Matthew Browne

July 15, 2016
JoAnn Falletta’s Musical Morning on WPRB

It’s a Falletta Fest! All recordings of works conducted and/or played by JoAnn Falletta this morning.

Falletta is in Princeton with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for this year’s Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, five days of intensive compositional evaluations and consultations, master classes and career-building opportunities, which will culminate in a live concert performance of participating composers’ works. The concert, including four world premieres and a piece by Institute director Steven Mackey, will take place tonight at Richardson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

In the meantime, composers you can expect to hear on this morning’s program will include Miguel del Águila, Romeo Cascarino, Eric Ewazen, Kenneth Fuchs, Gustav Holst, E.J. Moeran, Jerome Moross, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Marcel Tyberg, among others, performed by orchestras with which Falletta has had fruitful associations, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Women’s Philharmonic.

Falletta herself will drop by around 9:00 to talk about the institute and some of her other projects. She’s always very busy, with plenty of concerts, festivals and recordings in the pipeline.

I hope you’ll join me, this morning from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, for some entrancing musical rarities, at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

July 16, 2015

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