Looking Forward to the Readings
I'm in Milwaukee, WI, visiting family for the last four days, spending every moment I can submerged in cool Lake Michigan. I Flew in from Rome, Italy, where I'm living now, on July 10th, and am flying to Denver tomorrow morning. After reading the blog posts from my fellow composers invited for the readings, I am relieved to hear that I'm not the only one that has nightmares about part extraction and the spectacular
train wrecks that could happen....
I wrote this piece in May 2009, at the MacDowell Colony. I had just started reading Italo Calvino's fascinating American Lessons - the Norton Lectures that he wrote for Harvard - and was inspired to begin a series of works based on each of the lectures, which I believe are universal, not just for writers.
For me, the most nerve-wracking part of launching a piece into the world is the first time I hear musicians rehearse it. Sometimes performers don't like to have a composer present at a first rehearsal, and I completely empathize. It's very difficult to make sense of a fresh score, never played before.
What is a modern, major orchestra like, I ask myself. Is there still a sense of the old totalitarian regime that once reigned under Toscanini? If the 4th desk second violin player has a problem, does he whisper it to the 1st desk 2nd violin, who whispers it to the concertmaster, who gingerly asks the conductor? What will happen if I want to say something to the orchestra? Will I be able to?
I know I won't sleep tonight, nervous and excited for the adventure to come. I'll see you all in Denver!
Thank you to all the hardworkin', fantastic folks at ACO and in Colorado who have made this amazing event possible -- I am really honored to have been selected.
-Yotam
American Composers Orchestra is grateful to the many organizations that make its programs possible including Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Charitable Fund, Altman Foundation, Amphion Foundation, Benevity, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, BMI Foundation, BMI, Inc., Charity Navigator's Giving Basket, Cheswatyr Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ford Foundation’s Good Neighbor Committee, Give Lively, Francis B. Goelet Charitable Trust, Fromm Music Foundation, Steven R. Gerber Trust, G. Schirmer/Wise Music Foundation, The Hearst Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund, Jephson Educational Trusts, Jerome Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, New Music USA’s Organization Fund, The New York Community Trust (Musical Arts Fund, Clara Lewisohn Rossin Trust, and Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund), Pacific Harmony Foundation, Paypal Giving Fund, Rexford Fund, Sphinx Venture Fund, TD Charitable Foundation, Turrell Fund, UKOGF Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Corporate gifts to match employee contributions are made by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Triton Container International Incorporated of North America, and Neiman Marcus.
Public funds are provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, Office of Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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