“Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale has named Tarik O’Regan as its composer in residence—the first time in its 40-year history that the early-music ensemble has supported such a position,” writes Joshua Kosman in Tuesday’s (3/9) San Francisco Chronicle. “Plans for the British American composer’s 3½-year residency include three major commissioned works for Philharmonia: a concerto for oud (an Arabic cousin of the lute), followed by an opera and a choral work. He will also oversee a commissioning program for other composers, a composition competition, and the creation of a new ensemble under the Philharmonia umbrella dedicated to contemporary music…. Philharmonia, whose musicians perform on period instruments, has always focused almost exclusively on music of the 18th and early 19th centuries…. The residency promises to make new music a more prominent part of the orchestra’s activity…. O’Regan, 43, is a prolific composer of opera, chamber and choral music…. He and his wife, Joel Cabrita … moved to the Bay Area in 2019 from the small African kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) to take up positions at Stanford University. His music incorporates … stylistic influences including minimalism, Renaissance polyphony, rock and the music of northern Africa, where his mother’s family is from.”
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