New World Symphony Presents 6th Annual New Work Program, 4/29

The New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), will perform its sixth annual New Work program-dedicated to commissioning and premiering new pieces from high-profile and developing artists across a range of genres, intersecting music with theater, dance, poetry, video, lighting, and other art forms-on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at the New World Center. The program will include a new Michael Tilson Thomas-led-and-conceived stage production of Niccolò Castiglioni's Inverno In-Ver, the premiere performance of an orchestral version of Oscar Bettison's Lights in Ashes led by NWS Conducting Fellow Dean Whiteside, and the world premiere of John Supko's broken on the wheels of night, a New World Symphony commission composed for viola and electronics.

Tickets starting at $40 are available from NWS by phone at (305) 673-3331; online at NWS.edu; or in person at the New World Center box office.

Conceived, directed, and conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the new stage production of Italian modernist composer Niccolò Castiglioni's Inverno In-Ver (1973, rev. 1978) forms the centerpiece of the 2017 New Work program. The composition is a series of 11 music poems for small orchestra, and the new production takes full advantage of the New World Center's cutting-edge technology and infrastructure to blend projections (by Clyde Scott), lighting (by Luke Kritzeck), and scenic design (by Damian Sarno) inspired by the composition's winter theme. The production will also include new choreography developed by Patricia Birch and Benjamin Holliday Wardell, and danced by Mr. Wardell and-on video-Stephanie Fuentes.

NWS will also premiere Oscar Bettison's new orchestral arrangement of his composition Lights in Ashes. In its original chamber version, the piece was composed as the seventh and final movement of an evening-long work titled O Death (2005-07), about which the composer writes:

"The idea for O Death started when I heard the folk-song of the same name. In the song, a young person pleads with the character of death not to "take them so soon". I was immediately struck with the parallels between this and parts of the requiem Mass and so I started to think about grafting popular-music elements (particularly the blues) onto a kind of Requiem Mass structure (a structure which is typically rather fluid to begin with.) As the Requiem Mass normally involves sung text, and O Death does not, I like to think of O Death a Requiem Masque. ...

"Lights in Ashes begins with Jew's harps. This section gives way to a ... type of clockwork: a slow-moving resonant unison. The movement owes its title to Sir Thomas Browne: Since our longest Sunne sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lay down in darknesse, and have our lights in ashes."

To be conducted by NWS Fellow Dean Whiteside, the new version is arranged for 23 musicians and pre-recorded audio. Mr. Bettison will be in attendance at the concert.

Preceding both of the orchestral works is the world premiere of broken on the wheels of night, a New World Symphony commission for viola and electronics by John Supko. The new work's blend of technology and traditional instruments is characteristic of Mr. Supko's work more generally, including his acclaimed recording with media artist Bill Seaman, s_traits (2014), included in "Best Of" lists in The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Mr. Supko is a recipient of a Fulbright fellowship (2002) and has won numerous prizes and grants, among them the BMI Student Composer Award, two ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composers Awards (including the 2008 Leo Kaplan Award), and a Meet the Composer "Commissioning Music" commission.

To complement the musical program, NWS is presenting an interdisciplinary poetry recitation of a new work from American poet Roger Reeves. Conceived as a "choreopoem" that incorporates multiple reciters, music, and other elements in addition to the poet's own voice, this NWS-commissioned work is presented in celebration of National Poetry Month.

The New Work program underscores the New World Symphony's dedication to the commissioning and performance of work by contemporary artists, simultaneously providing an outlet for artists; a forum for audiences to experience new works by those artists; and the ability for NWS Fellows to work alongside contemporaries in a variety of genres, bringing their works to life. Previous New Work events have featured premieres by composers Samuel Carl Adams, Timo Andres, Marcos Balter, Zosha Di Castri, Ian Dicke, Sean Friar, Michael Gordon, Ted Hearne, Bruce Hornsby, Amy Beth Kirsten, Alex Orfaly, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Cynthia Lee Wong; video artists / filmmakers Tyler Adams, Adam Larsen, Bill Morrison, and Pascual Sisto; visual artist Merja Nieminen; audio artist James Andean; poets Malachi Black and Joshua Mehigan; choreographer Justin Peck; and playwrights Joe Tracz and Lauren Yee.

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Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.
New World Center, Miami, FL

New World Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Dean Whiteside, conductor
Patricia Birch, co-choreographer
Benjamin Holliday Wardell, co-choreographer and dancer
Stephanie Fuentes, dancer (appearing on video)
Roger Reeves, poet
Clyde Scott, projection designer
Luke Kritzeck, lighting designer
Damian Sarno, scenic designer

JOHN SUPKO broken on the wheels of night (World premiere; New World Symphony commission)
ROGER REEVES Choreopoem (Title TBA; World premiere; New World Symphony poetry commission)*
OSCAR BETTISON Lights in Ashes (World premiere of orchestral version)
NICCOLÒ CASTIGLIONI Inverno In-Ver (World premiere stage production by Michael Tilson Thomas)

*Choreopoem in in celebration of National Poetry Month

Tickets starting at $40 are available from NWS by phone at (305) 673-3331; online at NWS.edu; or in person at the New World Center box office.

Picture Credit: New Works Symphony

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