In Thursday’s (4/10) “Conducting Business” blog at WQXR, Naomi Lewin and Brian Wise write, “Barber’s Violin Concerto, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Copland’s Appalachian Spring are among a small handful of American works that have become staples of the orchestra repertoire.” Keith Fitch, head of the composition department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, is one of a group of composers and academics who recently wrote a letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the topic. “Fitch argues that … there is a wide swath of ‘diverse and compelling’ American repertoire, he says, that is seldom represented on orchestra programs, including pieces by William Schuman, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Walter Piston and even Charles Ives…. Ed Harsh, the president and CEO of the advocacy organization New Music USA, notes that a number of orchestras are making an effort to program American works, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Albany Symphony. The upcoming Spring for Music festival of American orchestras at Carnegie Hall is due to feature major works by Hanson and John Adams…. Harsh believes that living American composers should be essential to orchestras’ community outreach and audience-building efforts.” The article notes that the Seattle Symphony has recently launched an in-house record label with an album of music by Ives, Gershwin and Elliott Carter.
Posted April 11, 2014
