Orchestral World Premieres by Johnson, M. M., Wong, Adrian, Coleman, A., Amick, Alkaen (2023/2023), Musiikinjohto Jeffrey Milarsky, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, United States

oin 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.