Alsop Leads BSO in Two Works by Anna Clyne, Including the World Premiere of Color Field

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

Marin Alsop Leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 
in Two Works by Anna Clyne Including the
World Premiere of Color Field - October 23 & 24

“Entertaining, ingenious, and unpredictable.” – BBC Record Review

www.annaclyne.com

Baltimore, MD (September 14, 2021) — On Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 8:00pm at the Music Center at Strathmore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) presents Marin Conducts Rachmaninoff, a concert featuring two works by composer Anna Clyne. The program, helmed by BSO Music Director Marin Alsop, features the world premiere of Clyne’s Color Field, a BSO commission, and Restless Oceans, which was composed for Alsop; Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks; and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring pianist Lukáš Vondrácek. The program will be reprised on Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 3:00pm at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Clyne’s 15-minute Color Field (2021) for orchestra takes inspiration from philanthropist Melanie Sabelhaus, the work’s honoree, who loves the color Hermès Orange. From this, Clyne began creating music evoking color and exploring synesthesia. She says, “In the case of composer Scriabin, he associated specific pitches with specific colors, which I have adopted as tonal centers for the three movements of this piece: Yellow = D, Red = C, Orange = G.” Each movement of Color Field draws from Sabelhaus’ life and personality. Clyne explains, “Yellow evokes a hazy warmth and incorporates a traditional Serbian melody, first heard as a very slow bass line, and then revealed in the middle of the movement in the strings and winds. In Red, the fires blaze with bold percussive patterns and lilting lines. In Orange, the music becomes still and breathes, and then escalates once more, incorporating elements of Yellow and Red to create Orange – the signature color of Melanie Sabelhaus.”

Clyne’s Restless Oceans (2018) was composed for Marin Alsop and the Taki Concordia Orchestra for performance at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The piece received its world premiere at the opening ceremony in 2019 where Alsop was presented with the Forum’s Crystal Award in recognition of her championship of diversity in music. At 3-minutes, Restless Oceans takes inspiration and its title from Audre Lord’s poem “A Woman Speaks.” Clyne says, “In addition to playing their instruments, the musicians are also called to use their voices in song and strong vocalizations, and their feet to stomp and to bring them to stand united at the end. My intention was to write a defiant piece that embraces the power of women.” Restless Oceans is dedicated to Marin Alsop.

Concert Information
Marin Conducts Rachmaninoff
Saturday, October 23 at 8:00pm
Music Center at Strathmore | 5301 Tuckerman Lane | North Bethesda, MD
Sunday, October 24 at 3:00pm
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall | 1212 Cathedral Street | Baltimore, MD
Tickets: Starting at $30
Link: https://my.bsomusic.org/overview/16891

STRAUSS: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
ANNA CLYNE: Restless Oceans
ANNA CLYNE: Color Field [BSO Commission and World Premiere]
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2

Marin Alsop, conductor
Lukáš Vondrácek, piano

Proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 is required to attend all indoor BSO events, including concerts at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the Music Center at Strathmore. Facemasks are required at all times for indoor BSO events. Children under age 12 who are not currently eligible for vaccination will not be admitted to BSO indoor events. For more information, visit www.bsomusic.org/covid-19.

About Anna Clyne
London-born Anna Clyne is a GRAMMY-nominated composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music. Described as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods” in a New York Times profile and as “fearless” by NPR, Clyne is one of the most acclaimed and in-demand composers of her generation, often embarking on collaborations with innovative choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians.

Clyne has been commissioned by a wide range of ensembles and institutions, including BBC Radio 3, BBC Scottish Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and the Southbank Centre. Her work has been championed by such world-renowned conductors as Pablo Heras-Casado, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, Andre´ de Ridder, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Osmo Va¨nska¨, and Marin Alsop, who praised Clyne, stating: “Anna Clyne is someone I look to for great music. It’s always emotional and driven by her heart, but skillfully composed.”

From 2010–2015, Clyne served as a Mead Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Music Director Riccardo Muti lauded Clyne as “an artist who writes from the heart, who defies categorization, and who reaches across all barriers and boundaries. Her compositions are meant to be played by great musicians and heard by enthusiastic audiences no matter what their background.” She has also been in residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre national d’I^le-de- France, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Berkeley Symphony, and National Sawdust. Clyne serves as the mentor composer for the Orchestra of St Luke's DeGaetano Composer Institute. She is currently serving a three-year residency as Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, through the 2020-2021 season, including plans for a series of new works commissioned over three years.

Several upcoming projects explore Clyne’s fascination with visual arts, including Color Field for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, inspired by the artwork of Mark Rothko, and Between the Rooms, a film with choreographer Kim Brandstrup and LA Opera. Her elegy Within Her Arms opens the New York Philharmonic’s 2021-2022 season, the orchestra’s first full New York program since the pandemic began. Other recent and upcoming premieres include PIVOT, which opened the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival; A Thousand Mornings for the Fidelio Trio; a saxophone concerto for Jess Gilliam; Strange Loops for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; Fractured Time for the Kaleidoscope Ensemble; Overflow for wind ensemble, inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, composed for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; and Woman Holding a Balance, a film collaboration with Orchestra of St. Luke's and artist Jyll Bradley; and In the Gale for cello and bird song, performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Clyne composed a trilogy of Beethoven-inspired works that premiered in 2020 for Beethoven’s 250th anniversary: Stride for string orchestra, inspired by Beethoven's Sonata Pathe´tique, premiered by the Australian Composers Orchestra; Breathing Statues, premiered by the Calidore String Quartet; and Shorthand for solo cello and string quintet premiered by The Knights at Caramoor and in a version for cello and string orchestra by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

Other recent premieres include Sound and Fury, first performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Pekka Kuusisto in Edinburgh; and her Rumi-inspired cello concerto, DANCE, premiered with Inbal Segev at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, led by Cristian Ma?celaru. DANCE was also recently recorded by Segev and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Marin Alsop, which was released to critical acclaim on AVIE Records and has garnered more than five million plays on Spotify.

Clyne is the recipient of the 2016 Hindemith Prize; a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; awards from Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Jerome Foundation; and prizes from ASCAP and SEAMUS. She was nominated for the 2014 Times Breakthrough Award (UK).

Clyne’s music is represented on AVIE Records, Cantaloupe Music, Cedille, MajorWho Media, New Amsterdam, Resound, Tzadik, and VIA labels. In October 2020, AVIE Records released Clyne's Mythologies, a portrait album featuring the works Masquerade, This Midnight Hour, The Seamstress, Night Ferry, and <<rewind<<, recorded live by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with soloists Jennifer Koh and Irene Buckley and conductors Marin Alsop, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Litton, and Andre´ de Ridder. Recent releases include DANCE featuring Inbal Segev, Marin Alsop, and the London Philharmonic; The Violin, an album of her works for multi-tracked violins with animations by artist Josh Dorman; Blue Moth, an album of her instrumental music for ensemble and tape; Night Ferry with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti; and Prince of Clouds featuring Jennifer Koh and Jaime Laredo with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra on Cedille Records. Prince of Clouds was nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Composition and Night Ferry was nominated the same year for Best Engineered Album (Classical).

Clyne's music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes. www.boosey.com/clyne.

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Photo Credit: Christina Kernohan