The San José Chamber Orchestra in a pre-pandemic performance, with music director Barbara Day Turner standing at right.
“ ‘We couldn’t do what we normally do,’ says Barbara Day Turner, the founder and music director of the San José Chamber Orchestra,” writes Michael Zwiebach in Wednesday’s (7/7) San Francisco Classical Voice. “Figuring out what to do instead of your normal gig was a major theme of 2020, and Turner and SJCO fell back on something they’ve done often in the past: commission new works for string orchestra—12 of them, to be exact. ‘We decided to get an array of opinions from composers we’ve worked with at least once before and to give them free rein to respond to some aspect of 2020…. The longer … works in the project are: Alone Together by John Christopher Wineglass, a co-commission with the Fresno Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, and Pacific Symphony, which has already had its world premiere, virtually, by Pacific Symphony in late May. Inferno by Joel Friedman. Respecting the First (Amendment) by Judith Shatin…. Smaller works include: Unbreakable by Ahmed Alabaca. Through Misty Halls by Anica Galindo. Cognitive Dissonance by Juanita Harris. Cycles by Kendrick Tri Huynh. Refuge by Kerry Lewis. Doom, Gloom, and Zoom by Mona Lyn Reese. Etude by Michael Touchi. Olēka by Jaco Wong.”
