During its five-day residency with Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra this month, the chamber ensemble Classical Jam will join the orchestra to perform the world premiere of Payton MacDonald’s Concerto for Quintet, Orchestra and Audience. MacDonald, who composes and plays percussion and tabla in the new-music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, was commissioned to write the work, which draws on North Indian Hindustani classical music and involves the audience in the creative process and performance of the piece. Classical Jam’s residency with the youth orchestra—from May 19 to 23 at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland—will also feature the world premiere of Randall Woolf’s Mekong Delta Blues, which combines the live ensemble with digitally altered Vietnamese folk music, as well as performances of new works by cellist Wendy Law and percussionist Justin Hines, both members of Classical Jam. (Classical Jam’s three other members are violinist Jennifer Choi, violinist/violist Cyrus Beroukhim, and flutist Marco Granados.) Other residency activities include an interactive concert and workshop at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a workshop on improvisation with a select group from the youth orchestra.
Posted May 17, 2010
Photo of Payton MacDonald courtesy SeriousMusicMedia
