Cellist and former Seattle Symphony artist-in-residence Seth Parker Woods, who will perform the world premiere of Tyshawn Sorey’s For Roscoe Mitchell with the Seattle Symphony. Photo by Michael Yu
“On Thursday, Nov. 19, Tyshawn Sorey premieres a new work for cello and orchestra, ‘For Roscoe Mitchell,’ online with a 35-member edition of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra,” writes Paul de Barros in Thursday’s (11/12) Seattle Times. “The new piece is part of what was projected as a four-pronged artist-in-residence stint, [curtailed] due to COVID-19…. The new piece is dedicated to the great Chicago avant-garde reed player Roscoe Mitchell, whom Sorey considers a mentor…. Like Sorey, Mitchell is known for explosive improvisation but also for highly concentrated compositions that guide the listener to an uncanny focus on sound itself…. ‘For Roscoe Mitchell’ also shows the influence of composer Morton Feldman, in its … slow tempos and long string sustains. Over this calm surface floats the cello’s angular figures…. Sorey [wrote] it with cellist and former Seattle Symphony artist-in-residence Seth Parker Woods specifically in mind…. Sorey and Woods both share the influence of the late George Walker … who approached his own cello concerto nontraditionally. ‘It’s not that I don’t respect the tradition or the genre of concerto writing,’ said Sorey, ‘but I wanted to create a different notion of what that is.’ … He calls his new piece a ‘noncerto.’ ”
