Two separate new-music festivals are now underway, one presented by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Canada and the other at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. The WSO’s New Music Festival, from January 28 to February 2, focuses on Steve Reich, who will be in residence at the festival. Along with works by Reich such as Different Trains and Double Sextet, the festival will feature works by composers influenced by Reich. World premieres include Christos Hatzis’s Redemption: Book 3, Jim Hiscott’s Cantu, and a second percussion concerto by Vincent Ho, featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie. The festival’s February 2 wrap-up party, at 11:30 p.m. in the Pantages Playhouse Lobby in Winnipeg, will feature Canadian video artist Tasman Richardson and the avant-pop group Royal Canoe. The second annual LA International New Music Festival, presented by Southwest Chamber Music, takes place at the Colburn School on four Saturday evenings throughout the winter. The opening concert on January 26 featured the world premiere of Lei Liang’s Listening for Blossoms, as well as Elliott Carter’s Luimen and the U.S. premieres of Adina Izarra’s Oratorio Profano and Unsuk Chin’s Cosmigimmicks. Also scheduled on February 2, February 23, and March 2 concerts are the world premieres of Anne LeBaron’s Some Things Do Not Move and Roger Reynolds’s Positings; other works include Peter Maxwell Davies’s Lux in Tenebris, John Cage’s Muoyce II: Writing Through “Ulysses,” and Alberto Ginastera’s Serenata on Poems of Pablo Neruda. Each festival concert is preceded by a discussion with visiting composers and musicians, moderated by radio broadcaster Martin Perlich and Southwest Artistic Director Jeff von der Schmidt.
Posted January 29, 2013
