“A rambunctious 45-minute orchestral piece called Play, by American composer Andrew Norman, has been named the winner of the 2017 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition,” writes Tom Huizenga on Monday (11/28) at NPR. “The prize, which includes $100,000, was announced this evening by the University of Louisville, which sponsors the award. Former winners include Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho and Thomas Adès. Norman, 37, wrote Play for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, an ensemble led by Gil Rose, which premiered the work in 2013…. The work has had subsequent performances by three other orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic in October…. Grawemeyer Award Director Marc Satterwhite, who is also a composer, praised Play in a media statement for its brilliant orchestration, calling it ‘wildly inventive and idiomatic.’ … The next scheduled performance of Andrew Norman’s Play is Jan. 13 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Norman is currently working on A Trip to the Moon, a children’s opera for the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, to premiere in summer 2017.” Says Norman, “I think that orchestras have such an opportunity, especially now in this really conflicted, contentious moment, to say something powerful and meaningful about our own time.”
Posted November 29, 2016
Andrew Norman photo by Jessa Anderson
