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First
Fantasy
Bangor Symphony to Premiere “Millennium Fantasy” By Pulitzer Prize-winning
Composer Zwilich
By Jennifer Osborn
ELLSWORTH—It will be a concert of firsts.
On Sunday
afternoon, guest pianist Jeffrey Biegel will perform the Bangor
Symphony Orchestra’s first nationally commissioned piece—composed
by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer
prize for music.
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Michael Jinbo, above, will conduct “Millennium
Fantasy”. |
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“Millennium Fantasy” by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich,
above, and Jeffry Beigel, below, will play the piano part. |
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The work,
titled “Millennium Fantasy,” is a 20-minute, two-movement piece
for piano and orchestra, loosely based on a folk song the
composer’s grandmother used to sing to her.
The Bangor
Symphony was one of 27 orchestras across the country to commission
the work. Sunday’s concert will be its Maine premiere. Leading the
musicians will be conductor finalist Michael Jinbo, music director
of Hancock’s Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra
Musicians.
Bangor
Symphony became involved because Christopher Zimmerman, the
symphony’s former conductor, knew New York arts consultant Jeffrey
James, who was organizing the project for Biegel.
In 1998,
Biegel and James approached Ellen Taaffe Zwilich about composing a
new work.
“We thought
that she was really the perfect candidate for this,” said James.
“She’s really a major figure in American music. Her name has quite
an attraction to orchestras.”
“It was
something we wanted to put our name on, at least in part,” said
Catherine LeClair, the Bangor Symphony’s marketing director. “It
was a way for us to bring something very current to our audience.”
LeClair
said the symphony has commissioned works in the past, but by
composers who are tied to Maine.
“These
kinds of activities, commissioning new works, collaborating with
orchestras across the country, and bringing in artists such as
Jeffrey Biegel, who have a commitment to the project and music,
are fundamental to the strength and viability of the
organization,” said LeClair.
Biegel, who
will perform with the Bangor Symphony on Nov. 4, commissioned
“Millennium Fantasy” as a way for him to stand apart from other
pianists.
“Because
there are so many fine pianists, it’s difficult to do nothing but
standard repertoire,” James said. A pianist needs a chance at an
extraordinary piece of music to make a name for himself, he said.
Besides the
excitement of premiering a work, commissioning a work can help an
organization’s funding prospects. Foundations and funding agencies
like to see new music performed, James said.
Before
Zwilich began composing “Millennium Fantasy,” she thought about
the past 100 years.
“I was
thinking about how different the world was at the end of the 19th
century compared to the 20th century,” she said last week.
“It’s kind
of a free fantasy,” she said. Instead of having sharply defined
beginnings and endings, the piece “is a continuous work,” said
Zwilich.
“Millennium
Fantasy” does not have jazz in it, but Zwilich said people might
get the idea that the person who wrote it liked jazz.
The
instrumentation includes two flutes (piccolo), oboe, English horn,
clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, two horns, two
trumpets and percussion strings.
Zwilich,
62, has devoted her life to music.
“When I was
a toddler I climbed up on a piano bench and found out what
happened when I banged on it, and I’m still fascinated,” Zwilich
said.
“I started
taking piano lessons when I was 5, which I was dying to do,” said
Zwilich. “That didn’t last terribly long, but I’ve been making up
music ever since.”
Writing a
piece of music is akin to writing a play, said Zwilich.
“This
element of the performance is incorporated into the way the notes
go together,” she said. “When I was working on my notes I was
picturing Jeffrey play and the orchestra play.”
Zwilich was
born in Miami, Fla. She studied at Florida State University and
The Juilliard School. She won a Pulitzer prize in 1983 for her
Symphony No. 1.
Jeffrey
Biegel is on the piano faculty at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
as well as City University of New York.
The Bangor
Symphony will premiere the “Millennium Fantasy” on Sunday, Nov. 4,
at 3 p.m. at the Maine Center for the Arts, Orono. Also on the
program of 20th-century music will be George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody
in Blue,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Three Dance Episodes” from the 1944
musical “On the Town” and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”
Tickets/information: 942-5555 or 1-800-639-3221, or
www.bangorsymphony.com.
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