“The Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera pays tribute to American composers Saturday with a program featuring George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ ” writes Anthony Barcellos in Wednesday’s (2/20) Sacramento Bee (CA). “Loren Loiacono’s ‘Sleep Furiously’ will be performed and the composer herself will be in attendance. Also on the program will be Steven Stucky’s Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 and Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris.’ Maestro David Alan Miller of the Albany (New York) Symphony will conduct the performances…. It was the Albany Symphony that commissioned Loiacono’s ‘Sleep Furiously’ and premiered the work in 2016. Loiacono is not only the first composer to be present at an SPO concert featuring her work, she is also the first woman to have a composition on an SPO program…. Loiacono was inspired to take the title of her featured composition in the SPO’s concert from a nonsense sentence by linguist Noam Chomsky, ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.… Said Loiacono, ‘I love the contradictory imagery each fragment of the phrase creates…. It’s a very melodic, colorful piece, but also a very spontaneous one.’ ”
Posted February 26, 2019
