In Friday’s (4/27) Seattle Times, Tom Keogh writes, “The great thing about working with contemporary composers? ‘They’re not dead,’ quips Anthony Spain, music director of Northwest Symphony Orchestra (NWSO). ‘It’s great when you can talk to them.’ Spain has been doing a lot of talking with composers in the Pacific Northwest for a quarter-century. As founder, chief conductor and overall leader of the long-respected South King County ensemble, Spain instantly distinguished NWSO in 1987 when he decided it should specialize in performing works by the region’s writers of new music. … ‘Northwest Symphony’s 25th Anniversary Concert,’ the crown jewel in a season dubbed ‘25×125,’ not only will celebrate NWSO’s long history; it also will include two world premieres that bring the total number of compositions commissioned by the organization to 125. Those two pieces: guitarist Michael Nicolella’s ‘The Flame of the Blue Star of Twilight,’ based on a poem by Yeats and featuring Nicolella and soprano Alexandra Picard as soloists, and Samuel Jones’ ‘Petite Suite,’ extracted from Jones’ one-act opera ‘A Christmas Memory’ (based on the Truman Capote autobiographical short story). Also on the bill is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.”
Posted April 30, 2012
