Summer Broadcast Series: Orchestral World Premieres

  • Broadcast, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Student Recital
  • Jun 27, 2023 @ 12:00 P.M.

This performance will be premiered as part of Curtis’s Summer Broadcast Series.

Join our five composition students for an evening of world premieres. Each composer will share a brand-new work to be performed by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. The program opens with Maya Miro Johnson’s Bruises, featuring pianist Katelyn Bouska, a poetic work that explores invisible wounds, time, and trauma. Adrian Wong’s Eulogy for a Fallen Tree, a concerto for two bassoons and contrabassoon, traces the life of one of these majestic, human-like beings from a humble seed to its collapse in a thunderous roar.

The program continues with Alistair Coleman’s Gold Girl/Dark Doves, written for soprano Ashley Marie Robillard (Voice ’18, Opera ’20), which sets Sarah Arvio’s English translations of two Federico García Lorca poems on love and death to music. Leigha Amick’s Gossamer Depths was composed after seeing the Hubble Space Telescope’s breathtaking image of the Orion Nebula. The concert closes with Elisa Arancio’s His Last Ballet, a percussive new work inspired by award-winning poet Ross Gay’s “Marionette” and featuring saxophonist Antonio Jarvey.

Program

MAYA MIRO JOHNSON Bruises

Katelyn Bouska, piano (pre-recorded)
Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

ADRIAN WONG Eulogy for a Fallen Tree

Asha Kline, bassoon
Luis Marquez Teruel, bassoon
Kahlan Yenney, bassoon
Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

ALISTAIR COLEMAN Gold Girl/Dark Doves

Ashley Marie Robillard
Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

LEIGHA AMICK Gossamer Depths

Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

ELISE ARANCIO His Last Ballet

Antonio Jarvey, alto saxophone
Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

Run time: Approximately one hour and 15 minutes

Artists

  • Jeffrey Milarsky Conductor

    Jeffrey Milarsky is a highly sought-after podium figure in the world of orchestral, opera, and chamber music.  He has been hailed as a pre-eminent interpreter of contemporary music. A creative and adventurous programmer, his passionate advocacy for living composers has made him a frequent musical collaborator with orchestras in America and abroad.

    In recent seasons he works regularly with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, MET Chamber Ensemble, Bergen Philharmonic in Norway, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New World Symphony, and Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. In the U.S. and abroad he has premiered and recorded works by many groundbreaking contemporary composers in Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and at IRCAM in Paris.  Mr. Milarsky has a long history of premiering, recording, and performing American composers and throughout his career has collaborated with John Adams, Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, Michael Gordon, David Lang, George Lewis, Steven Mackey, Steve Reich, Christopher Rouse, Ralph Shapey, Morton Subotnick, Charles Wuorinen, and an entire generation of young and developing composers. In 2013 he was awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award for his commitment to the performance of American music.

    In his role as an educator at Columbia University and at The Juilliard School, he has spent over twenty-five years supporting and cultivating young musicians and composers around the globe.

    He serves as the Music Director of AXIOM and is on the conducting faculty at The Juilliard School.  Additionally, he is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Columbia University where he is the Music Director and conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra. A much-in-demand timpanist and percussionist, Milarsky has been the principal timpanist for the Santa Fe Opera since 2005. He has also performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has recorded extensively for Angel, Bridge, Teldec, Telarc, New World, CRI, MusicMasters, EMI, Koch, and London records.

  • Curtis Symphony Orchestra

    Acclaimed for its “otherworldly ensemble and professional level of sophistication” (New York Times), the Curtis Symphony Orchestra offers a dynamic showcase of tomorrow’s exceptional young talent. Each year the 100 extraordinary musicians of the orchestra work with internationally renowned conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop, Simon Rattle, Robert Spano, and Yannick Nézet Séguin, who also mentors the early-career conductors who hold Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowships. This professional training has enabled Curtis alumni to assume prominent positions in America’s leading orchestras, as well as esteemed orchestral, opera, and chamber ensembles around the world.

About the Composers

Maya Miro Johnson, from Salt Lake City, a student of Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, is the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow and entered Curtis in 2019.

Adrian Wong, from Hong Kong, a student of Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, is the Milton L. Rock Composition Fellow and entered Curtis in 2021.

Alistair Coleman, from Washington, D.C., a student of Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, is the Daniel W. Dietrich II Composition Fellow and first entered Curtis in 2020.

Leigha Amick, from Boulder, Colo., a student of Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, is the Jimmy Brent Fellow and entered Curtis in 2021.

Elise Arancio, from Tucker, Ga., a student of Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, is the Edith Evans Braun Fellow and entered Curtis in 2018.

About the Performers

Antonio Jarvey, guest artist

Asha Kline, from Ellicott City, Md., a student of Daniel Matsukawa, is the David H. Springman Memorial Fellow and entered Curtis in 2020.

Jeffrey Milarsky, guest artist

Ashley Marie Robillard (Voice ’18, Opera ’20)

Luis Marquez Teruel, from Maracaibo, Venezuela, a student of Daniel Matsukawa, is the William Curtis Bok Bassoon Fellow and entered Curtis in 2019.

Kahlan Yenney, from Indialantic, Fla., a student of Daniel Matsukawa, is the Myer and Helen K. Schwartz Fellow and entered Curtis in 2020.

Special Thanks

The Curtis Institute of Music received funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Edith L. and Robert Prostkoff Memorial Concert Series.

    • Date Jun 27, 2023
    • Time 12:00 P.M.