The Amarillo Symphony in Texas will perform the world premiere of Stephen Hunter Rothermel’s Somnus Sleeps during its “Warhorses” program on November 21. Rothermel is winner of the Amarillo Symphony and West Texas A&M University’s Young Composers Initiative, launched jointly by the orchestra and the university this season and spearheaded by Music Director Jacomo Rafael Bairos. The initiative is open to student composers from West Texas A&M. Rothermel’s work appears on the program with Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and Samuel Jones’s Cello Concerto, with soloist Julian Schwarz. Chris Rogerson, the Amarillo Symphony’s 26-year-old composer in residence, was featured on the orchestra’s season-opening concert in September, when it performed the world premiere of his The Way Through. Rogerson’s 2010 work Luminosity will be performed at two January concerts that also include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 and Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
Posted November 19, 2014
