"My compositions are inspired by the performers," said Jennifer Higdon, American composer of contemporary classical music. She admits to having an unorthodox story for starting in music, yet her works have been played by and commissioned for major orchestras worldwide.
Higdon's career track is impressive. In 2010 alone, the Brooklyn, New York native won a Pulitzer for Music for her Violin Concerto. Higdon has also won three Grammys in her career for Best Contemporary Classical Composition: first for her Percussion Concerto in 2010, in 2018 for her Viola Concerto, and in 2020 for her Harp Concerto. Most recently, Higdon's Percussion Concerto recording was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
Higdon will join the Frost Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Gerard Schwarz, along with Frost faculty member Svet Stoyanov and guest soloist Matthew Strauss at the University of Miami's Maurice Gusman Concert Hall on Saturday, October 29. The night will feature the East Coast premiere of Higdon's Double Percussion Concerto and Mahler's first symphony in D major, known as the "Titan"—considered one of the composer's best works and a true titan in the orchestral canon.
Higdon said, "I have long known Maestro Schwarz for his fantastic and dynamic leadership from the podium. So, this will be a blast!"
Schwarz dittos her excitement. "Jennifer's piece is full of rhythmic vitality and energy. And her music is known for that, but it is also poignant and beautiful—in an accessible way. You get modern music, but modern music that one can identify with and enjoy for its rhythmic sophistication and complexity, beauty, and passion," said Schwarz, who serves as Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, Palm Beach Symphony, and Mozart Orchestra of New York.
Schwarz is the Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. Schwarz is also a Distinguished Professor of Music, Conducting, and Orchestral Studies at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and the Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra. He attests that Higdon has written a huge piece for percussion. Every percussion instrument you can think of will be aligned in the front of the stage with Stoyanov and Strauss playing them.
Higdon composed the Double Percussion Concerto specifically for Stoyanov and Strauss. It received its world premiere last season, featuring these two artists with the Houston Symphony. The piece brilliantly includes a significant part of the orchestral percussion section. "But it's not like you bring in these two great percussionists, and the locals don't get to play, you know?" said Schwarz with a chuckle. "Yes, it's a game for two," he observes, "but all the other instruments in the back of the orchestra get to play, too!"
That musical euphoria takes Higdon back to her childhood when she must have had some powerful inner pull toward music. She credits her father, Charles Higdon, a renowned painter, for showing her the power of the arts. As a child, she dabbled in photography and writing, but Higdon didn't get exposed to classical music just then despite that intro to art. In high school, she listened to rock and folk music from the 1960s and began the flute and percussion journey, primarily self-taught.
"The flute happened accidentally because we had one sitting in the attic, and I got it out and started learning from some basic technique books," she recalled. "Given my family background, taking up these instruments and joining a marching band doesn't seem logical, but I was smitten with music once I did."
In 1994, Higdon's story began to unfold nicely as she became a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she held the Milton L. Rock Chair in Compositional Studies until 2021. When asked what inspired her teachings, she said, "I found that my students were the most emotional aspect of my teaching. I loved sharing knowledge and experience with them and, in turn, learning from their questions. I believe I learned just as much as I taught."
That sentiment still holds today. She hopes her visit to Frost School of Music will be equally inspirational to the students and to the audience who come to hear her work. "My big hope with my music is that, in some way, it intrigues, challenges, and inspires the students. I always compose with the desire that my writing will touch them while also allowing them to express things they feel deeply," said Higdon.
Come hear "Duo Duel" (the double percussion concerto). It has some of the most challenging music written for percussionists, and, like Higdon said, "it rocks like crazy!" Tickets are available HERE.
