“Like most American orchestras, the Atlanta Symphony plays most of the standard repertoire, from Mozart to Gershwin,” says Jeff Lunden in an “All Things Considered” segment that aired Friday (11/26) on NPR. But Music Director Robert Spano, celebrating ten years with the ASO this season, has “made it his mission to showcase new music, championing, the work of a group of composers now known as the ‘Atlanta School.’ ‘We had the idea not to have a composer-in-residence,’ he says, ‘but rather to work with a few composers regularly over time, and not play just one work of theirs, but play existing music of theirs—second, third, fourth performances … to make them part of our musical life, our musical family.’ …’I get excited about being part of a process,’ Spano says, ‘where the person who’s writing the music is also going through a voyage of discovery in their own musical life in terms of what they’re writing, what they’re writing for, what forces. And to be part of that is just exhilarating.’” Audio of the complete “All Things Considered” segment” can be found here.
Posted November 29, 2010
Photo of Robert Spano by Angela Morris
