The Princeton Symphony Orchestra Opens Season with a Composition by Steven Mackey
Posted on 09. Sep, 2010 by PNN Editor in Events, Music
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra opens its 2010-11 season, its first full season under Music Director Rossen Milanov on Sunday, October 3 at 4 p.m., giving the East Coast premiere of Princeton-based composer Steven Mackey’s Beautiful Passing, “a life-affirming work,” according to The Times of London. Violinist Leila Josefowicz, who served as soloist in the work’s 2008 world premiere in London with the BBC Philharmonic, reprises her role performing Mackey’s concerto with the PSO. Local audiences will get to hear Josefowicz before her West Coast premiere of Beautiful Passing with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic. Bookending the Mackey concerto will be dazzling works by Mozart and Tchaikovsky. In choosing to showcase Princeton University professor and composer Steven Mackey in his opening concert, Mr. Milanov signals his season-long dedication of PSO concerts to collaborations with the cultural treasures that make Princeton extraordinary.
Steven Mackey was inspired to write Beautiful Passing as he experienced the death of his mother whose last words to him were, “Please tell everyone I had a beautiful passing.” In program notes about this profoundly personal composition, Mackey writes, “Beautiful Passing is in two halves separated by a violin cadenza… The first half deals with the interaction between the sharply contrasting materials of the violin and the orchestra. … The governing metaphor of the work has to do with the violin gaining control of its own destiny, competing with, commanding and ultimately letting go of the orchestra.”
The program will open with Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute, an effervescent work that “lifted the spirits” of an ill Mozart near the end of his life. The major symphonic offering of the afternoon will be Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, one of the composer’s best-loved works and decidedly more jubilant in tone than the well-known Fourth and Sixth symphonies.
Steven Mackey was born in 1956 to American parents stationed in Frankfurt Germany. His first musical passion was playing the electric guitar in rock bands based in northern California. He later discovered concert music and has composed for orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance and opera. Mackey’s colleague at Princeton University, composer Paul Lansky, has written about Mackey .… “the qualities of his music – its originality, freshness, dazzling invention, a certain impertinence – strike the listener like an unusual stone discovered on a rock-strewn beach…brilliantly executed, uniquely American, and accessible to a new group of listeners, Mackey’s music comes from places that haven’t had much of a voice in the world of concert music.” Mackey regularly performs his own work, including two electric guitar concertos as well as numerous solo and chamber works, and is also active as an improvising musician. A Guggenheim Fellowship winner, he has had works commissioned by the Chicago, San Francisco, and Saint Louis symphonies; Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Carnegie Hall, among many others. Since 1985, Mr. Mackey has served as a professor of music at Princeton University, where he is currently the chair of the music department, teaches composition, theory, twentieth century music and improvisation. He is also co-director of the Princeton Composers’ Ensemble and in 1991 he was awarded the University’s first-ever Distinguished Teaching Award.
Princeton audiences will have the singular privilege of hearing Mackey’s violin concerto performed by superstar violinist Leila Josefowicz for whom he composed the piece. Mackey has praised Leila Josefowicz for her “robust virtuosity, her ability to groove hard, and the way she owned every phrase as if she had made it up herself in that moment.” The violinist came to national attention in 1994 when she made her Carnegie Hall debut with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Since then she has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and eminent conductors, and collaborated with other leading composers of the day such as John Adams and Oliver Knussen. In recognition of her passionate advocacy and genuine commitment to the music of today, Ms. Josefowicz was awarded a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She currently performs on a Del Gesu made in 1724.
Recognized as “one of the most promising figures in the upcoming generation of conductors” by The Seattle Times, Rossen Milanov was appointed Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in 2009. During the 2009-10 season, he made a series of international debuts, including performances with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Hyogo Symphony in Japan, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and the China Philharmonic. In demand as guest conductor of orchestras around the world, Mr. Milanov continues to serve as Music Director of Symphony in C, based in Camden, New Jersey, Associate Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and is Music Director of the New Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria).
Special events to accompany PSO’s October 3 concert
PSO is proud to introduce local audiences to Steven Mackey, an internationally renowned composer who has premiered works with major orchestras around the world and who lives in Princeton with his family. To broaden this introduction, the public is invited to Behind the Music – A Public Forum to Learn about the Creation of New Music on Saturday, October 2, 2010 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m at The Paul Robeson Center at the Arts Council of Princeton. Composer Steven Mackey, violinist Leila Josefowicz and conductor Rossen Milanov, will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process and reveal the inspirations for Beautiful Passing – its themes and structure, performance challenges and how musicians respond to the work. This event is jointly sponsored by the Arts Council of Princeton and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and is free to the public. Call the PSO for more information and to reserve seats.
On Sunday, October 3, to further share his views and allow the audience to learn more about his creative techniques and approach, Steve Mackey will join Rossen Milanov in PSO’s popular pre-concert lecture, free and open to ticket holders, at 3:00 p.m., prior to the concert in Richardson Auditorium. This is another rare opportunity to hear the insights of a living composer who, according to a review of Beautiful Passing in The Guardian, (UK), “is the [composer] whose acquaintance I would most like to renew.”
About the Princeton Symphony Orchestra
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of the state’s finest musical organizations. Founded in 1980 by Portia Sonnenfeld, the PSO has been hailed by critics as New Jersey’s “virtuoso Orchestra. “ The orchestra has been guided by an extraordinary Board of Trustees, whose ranks have included such visionaries as Frank E. Taplin, Jr., Edward T. Cone, William F. Scheide, Reid White, Nathaniel Burt, and Judy Thomson. The PSO was led for 22 years by Music Director Mark Laycock, who oversaw a period of artistic growth and achievement. In 2009, Rossen Milanov was appointed the PSO’s third Music Director. Under the auspices of BRAVO!, the PSO also produces wide-reaching and innovative education programs carried out in partnerships with local schools, arts organizations and other community agencies. The PSO is proud to be a current recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts’ highest honors: Citation of Excellence and designation as a Major Arts Institution.
Concert and Ticket Information
The PSO presents its five-concert classical subscription series and its Holiday and Broadway pops concerts in the 850-seat Richardson Auditorium (Princeton University campus) during a September-May season. Programs are subject to change. New subscriptions and single tickets are available by calling the PSO at (609) 497-0020. Season information may be found on the PSO’s website (www.princetonsymphony.org). Remaining single tickets, priced at $50, 38, 20, may also be purchased at the Richardson Auditorium box office, (609) 258-5000, and at www.princeton.edu/utickets. Richardson Auditorium is wheelchair accessible. Large-print programs are available.
Please visit our website at www.princetonsymphony.org or call the PSO offices at (609) 497-0020.
What: Princeton Symphony Orchestra 2010-11 Season Opening Concert: Power, Passion, and Grace
When: Sunday, October 3, 2010
Who: Rossen Milanov, conductorLeila Josefowicz, violin soloist
Program: Mozart – Overture to The Magic Flute
Steven Mackey – Beautiful Passing
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5
Pre-concert lecture: 3pm; led by Steven Mackey and Rossen Milanov
Where: Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall, on the Princeton University Campus
Tickets: $64, 50, 38, 20 Call: 609-497-0020
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Melanie Clarke
PSO Executive Director
(609) 497-0020
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