Five orchestras have signed on to the Global Commissioning Project, whose inaugural commission is a concerto for piano and orchestra by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra will give the world premiere on a date to be announced. To date, four other orchestras have joined on as co-commissioners: the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Key West Symphony Orchestra. The project aims to include between 50 and 100 orchestras to join in the project, which is being spearheaded by pianist/ composer/arranger Jeffrey Biegel, who worked with Zwilich on her Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra in 2000, which resulted from a commissioning project involving 27 orchestras. Biegel said he took on the project because he believes it is “it is timely to join orchestras together again” and having a large number of co-commissioning orchestras is a way to “keep the project affordable for all concerned.”
Posted November 17, 2009
