The Cleveland Orchestra To Premiere Allison Loggins-Hull's 'Can You See?'

On Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 7:30pm and Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 8:00pm, The Cleveland Orchestra will present the world premiere of flutist, composer, and producer Allison Loggins-Hull's Can You See? at Mandel Concert Hall in Severance Music Center. An hour before each performance, Loggins-Hull curates a special Prelude program, featuring excerpts from her full-length program Honoring Black Composers, which will The Cleveland Orchestra will present at 2:00pm on May 21, 2023 at Karamu House. She speaks on The Cleveland Orchestra's panel Explorations, The American Dream on May 20.

In addition to the world premiere of Loggins-Hull's new work, Cleveland-born cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins Music Director Franz Welser-Möst to perform Barber's lyric and romantic Cello Concerto. Praised for its Brahms-like grandeur, the piece was written while Barber served the U.S. military during World War II. The Orchestra will also perform the 1947 version of Projofiev's Symphony No. 4, a fascinating work that was premiered in Boston before Projofiev reworked it upon return to the Soviet Union.

Loggins-Hull shared that Can You See? is a play on The Star Spangled Banner intended to create "a mournful or somber approach that honors lives lost, while also pointing to what the role and responsibility of the living is." Originally a small chamber ensemble piece commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the Newark Museum of Art in 2021, this larger iteration of Can You See? has been arranged for a full symphony orchestra. Loggins-Hull added, "Melodic material from The Star Spangled Banner is used throughout the work, often stretched out and surrounded by tension and revolving colors. The strings create a soundworld that is cloudy, uncertain, and bleary, questioning if the core meaning of the anthem is In Focus. Rhythmic elements evoke a forward-moving motion, while textures and harmonic language nod to the scope and diversity of American music and people. Voices from the original version are orchestrated to achieve a designed delay effect, creating a dreamy soundscape while posing questions relating to the meaning of The Star Spangled Banner and the complicated history of the United States."

The program on May 4 and 6 will close her first of three seasons with The Cleveland Orchestra as their eleventh Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, a rare post for an American composer. As part of her appointment, Loggins-Hull works with the Orchestra's artistic, education, and community engagement staff, Cleveland Orchestra musicians, and most importantly, with community partners, to build activities and artistic relationships that reflect and engage the Cleveland community. With a focus on the narratives and history of Cleveland, she connects with members of the community through chamber music performances and composition workshops with students. This is the first time in history that the fellowship extends three seasons, at the request of Loggins-Hull, in order for The Cleveland Orchestra to delve deeper into her musical language and for her to be able to have a greater community impact.

Program Information

The Cleveland Orchestra Performs World Premiere Arrangement of Can You See?
Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 7:30pm
Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center | Cleveland, OH
Tickets: $24 - $94
Link: clevelandorchestra.com/attend/concerts-and-events/2223/severance/wk-22-Prokofiev/

The Cleveland Orchestra Performs World Premiere Arrangement of Can You See?
Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 8:00pm
Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center | Cleveland, OH
Tickets: $31 - $122
Link: clevelandorchestra.com/attend/concerts-and-events/2223/severance/wk-22-Prokofiev/

Program:
Loggins-Hull - Can You See? [World Premiere, rev. 2023]
Barber - Cello Concerto
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 4 (rev. 1947)

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Allison Loggins-Hull, composer
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
The Cleveland Orchestra

About Allison Loggins-Hull

Allison Loggins-Hull is a flutist, composer, and producer whose work defies classification and has been described as "evocative" by The Wall Street Journal. She has been associated with acts across the spectrum of popular and classical music including Flutronix, Hans Zimmer, Lizzo, Imani Winds, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alicia Hall Moran, and Jason Moran. Her music is resonant with social and political themes of the current moment, encompassing motherhood, Blackness, and cultural identity. Loggins-Hull and Nathalie Joachim co-founded the critically acclaimed duo Flutronix, which has been praised by The Wall Street Journal for being able "to redefine the instrument" and for "redefining the flute and modernizing its sound by hauling it squarely into the world of popular music" (MTV).

Beginning with the 2022-2023 season, and continuing for three seasons, Loggins-Hull is the Cleveland Orchestra's eleventh Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow. In addition to several Cleveland Orchestra commissions, including an expanded arrangement of her composition Can You See? in the 2022-23 season, Loggins-Hull's work will be centered around the narratives and history of Cleveland, through chamber music performances and composition workshops with students. During the 2022-23 season, Loggins-Hull performs with Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran at the Mississippi Museum of Art, with ETHEL at the Brooklyn Public Library, and on an East Coast tour with Flutronix and Third Coast Percussion. As a composer, she has eight world premieres, a U.S. premiere, and a New York premiere this season, including 7th Ave. S for the Cygnus Ensemble at New York City's The Village Trip; the world premiere of her Persist at the Brooklyn Public Library; Love Always with Toshi Reagon and Alarm Will Sound at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center; a world premiere performed by yMusic at Carnegie Hall; and a world premiere for Castle of Our Skins at Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Last season, Loggins-Hull joined the Bang on a Can All-Stars for their People's Commissioning Fund concert and performed Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran's Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration at Cal Performances in Berkeley. Her compositions were performed by the LA Phil and San Francisco Symphony, and she premiered two projects with Flutronix: Black Being at the Arts Club of Chicago and Cincinnati Symphony and Discourse with Carolina Performing Arts. The New Jersey Symphony premiered Can You See? and her commissioning project Diametrically Composed - composed with fellow composers/mothers Alicia Hall Moran, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Jessica Meyer - received its long-awaited premiere at Bryant Park in New York City.

Highlights of Loggins-Hull's performances include concerts at The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, World Cafe Live, and many other major venues and festivals around the world. She has composed for Flutronix, Julia Bullock, and many others, and has been commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carolina Performing Arts, and The Library of Congress. In support of her work, Loggins-Hull has been awarded grants from New Music USA, and a fellowship at The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood, Florida.

With Flutronix, she has released two full studio albums (Flutronix and 2.0), a live album (Live From the Attucks Theatre), an EP (City of Breath) and is signed to Village Again Records in Japan. As a member of The Re-Collective Orchestra, Loggins-Hull was co-principal flutist on the soundtrack to Disney's 2019 remake of The Lion King, working closely with Hans Zimmer. She was a co-producer of Nathalie Joachim's celebrated album Fanm d'Ayiti, which was nominated for a 2020 GRAMMY for Best World Music Album. On the small screen, she has been featured in an internationally broadcast ESPN Super Bowl commercial, the 62nd annual GRAMMYs Award Show and the Black Girls Rock! Awards Show. Continuing her work in film, Loggins-Hull composed the score for Bring Them Back, a 2019 award-winning documentary about the legendary dancer Maurice Hines directed by Jon Carluccio and executive produced by Debbie Allen.

Allison Loggins-Hull is a former faculty member of The Juilliard School's Music Advancement Program and teaching artist at The Juilliard School's Global Ventures. From 2018-2022, Allison Loggins-Hull served on the flute faculty of The John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. Born in Chicago, she lives with her family in Montclair, New Jersey. Learn more at www.allisonloggins.com.

Photo Credit: Rafael Rios

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