In 2016, the Orlando Philharmonic and other members of the arts community in Orlando, Florida performed together at “Beautiful Together: An Artistic Journey Toward Hope” following the shooting at Pulse nightclub.
“A work memorializing the tragedy at Pulse will debut during the Orlando Philharmonic’s 2020-21 season,” writes Matthew J. Palm in Sunday’s (2/2) Orlando Sentinel (FL). Lev Zhurbin’s score refers to the 2016 shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, in which 49 people were killed. “The new Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is at the heart of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2020-21 season…. Each program will be performed twice, and the number of programs will increase from five to six. [Music Director Eric] Jacobsen will conduct every Classics Series concert…. The series opens Sept. 26-27 with a program of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and more. Composer-in-residence Anna Clyne will have a work in the program, as will Orlando resident Stella Sung. The diverse program will culminate with Stravinsky’s famed ‘Rite of Spring.’ … Bassist Edgar Meyer [will] premiere [his own] concerto for bass and a percussion instrument devised of PVC pipe, paired with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7…. The premiere of Lev Zhurbin’s ‘Pulse, a memorial,’ [will be] on a bill with Russian masters Shostakovich and Prokofiev…. [Vocalist] Aoife O’Donovan will [debut her] song cycle in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.”
