The Frost Symphony Orchestra (FSO) kicks off its season this fall with a pair of once-in-a-century performances—the final two premieres in its six-part Centennial commissioning series celebrating the first 100 years of the Frost School of Music.
Professor Gerard Schwarz, the conductor and musical director of the FSO who created the series, drew on the extensive network he built in his many years in the top echelons of classical music to bring in two of its most important composers.
This Saturday, the FSO will play “Chant” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands, whose music has been programmed by a who’s who of major conductors and commissioned by a long list of important orchestras.
Next month, the FSO will wind up the Centennial series with “Cosmic Hieroglyphs — Homage to Count Basie” by Augusta Read Thomas, a Pulitzer finalist and beloved, widely recognized composer who has created music for numerous orchestras, classical ensembles, and opera and dance companies.
“Premiering new works is not unusual for us,” said Schwarz. “But premiering works by such esteemed composers, and for such an important event as our centennial, has been especially meaningful to our students.”
Thomas got Schwarz’s email inviting her to compose for the Centennial series as she was boarding a plane. She immediately replied, “Yes!!”
“Jerry is a force of nature,” Thomas said from Chicago, where she is a professor at the University of Chicago and founder and leader of their Center for Contemporary Composition. “All the commissions he’s done, all the premieres, the breadth of his repertoire, which encompasses not only classical music but also cinematic music and jazz. He’s a very broad and multi-dimensional artist whom I feel blessed to know.”
Schwarz previously invited Thomas to compose “Of Paradise and Light” for the All-Star Orchestra, which he created and leads; he also presented the piece at the Seattle Symphony, where he was music director for 26 years. (Made up of top musicians from orchestras across the country, the All-Star Orchestra records performances for PBS and the Khan Academy, which have been seen by millions of people.) He became friends with Rands in 1993, when he conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the world premiere of Rands' “Canti dell'Eclisse,” which they commissioned.
(The two composers are married, but Rands, who is 92, was not available for an interview.)
Schwarz launched the Centennial series last fall, with “Undefeated” by composition faculty member Dorothy Hindman. He continued highlighting the depth of Frost School faculty talent with premieres of pieces by GRAMMY and Emmy-winning media studies chair Carlos Rivera and Guggenheim-winning jazz and Afro-Caribbean composer and professor Etienne Charles. The FSO premiered a piece by Paul Moravec, a Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal and orchestral composer, last March.
“I thought there was no better way to celebrate the school's centennial than with the commission of new works,” Schwarz said last fall. “One of the great opportunities with anniversaries is to look forward. We evaluate where we are and who we are. Then we dream about where we want to be and who we want to be.”
Thomas said “Cosmic Hieroglyphs” was partly inspired by the optimism and energy created by the centennial of the Frost School and its young musicians. “I liked the idea that it’s a centennial year, and of all these young artists preparing for their future, spreading beauty, grace, and expertise.”
Her faith in Schwarz’s ability meant that she treated composing for the FSO the same way she treated composing for scores of other elite musical ensembles. “His joy, experience, and excellence mean that he’s a great role model,” she said. “Cosmic Hieroglyphs” is for a professional orchestra, because I consider the Frost Symphony at the level of a professional orchestra.”
For Schwarz, giving the FSO students the chance to play a challenging world premiere by one of the United States’ most important classical composers is par for the course at the Frost School.
“The experience we’re trying to give these musicians is all-encompassing in terms of what they need to enter a professional life in music,” he said. “For the orchestra, that means doing traditional repertoire, but also doing unusual repertoire and music by living composers. They are thrilled to play Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. They’re also thrilled to play Bernard Rand.”
If you go: The Frost Symphony Orchestra performs Bernard Rands' “Chant,” Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 at 7:30 pm on Saturday, Sept. 20, in the Maurice Gusman Concert Hall. Tickets are $15 to $30.
