On February 24, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will premiere Ellen Reid’s Petrichor, the most recent of the orchestra’s LACO Sound Investment commissions, through which concertgoers invest $300 or more in a membership to observe closely the development of a new work from the composer’s earliest ideas to the finished composition. Reid describes Petrichor as a spatialized work featuring bass, flute and violin solos, with musicians placed on stage as well as around the concert hall. Says Reid, “Petrichor, which means the smell that follows the first rain after a long period of dry weather, stems from my interest in expanding what a concert experience can look like. In Petrichor, the conductor almost serves as choreographer as he unifies the fractured ensemble, and the sounds of the ensemble envelop the audience from all sides.” Reid has written operas, chamber music, electronic pop songs, immersive interactive media, and film scores for the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Beth Morrison Project, Theater Mitu, and filmmaker Sarah Adina Smith. The orchestra will perform Reid’s Petrichor on a program with Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings featuring LACO Principal Horn Michael Thornton and tenor Thomas Cooley, and Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (“London”).
Posted February 20, 2018
