ASO Music Director Robert Spano (center) with (from left) composers Michael Gandolfi, Adam Schoenberg, Christopher Theofanidis, and Jennifer Higdon
“While Beethoven and Brahms … receive a fair share of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s attention each season, music director Robert Spano and the rest of the artistic staff have worked hard to present compositions created by living composers,” writes Jon Ross in Monday’s (11/8) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Next fall, Nathalie Stutzmann will become the fifth music director in the ensemble’s history. New music will likely remain a focus. But with the departure of such a key figure … the ASO has developed the Spano Fund for New Music. The fund kicks off Nov. 19 at Symphony Hall with a concert featuring world premieres of works by composers Michael Gandolfi and Krists Auznieks [plus] Michael Kurth’s ‘Everything Lasts Forever,’ Adam Schoenberg’s ‘Luna Azul’ and ‘Onward’ by … Brian Nabors. The fund will ensure the ASO can continue commissioning and presenting works from living American composers even after Spano begins his new job as music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. All ticket revenue from the evening will be donated to the fund … made possible through a lead gift from the Antinori Foundation…. Many of the new music commissions during Spano’s tenure … have come out of the so-called Atlanta School of Composers.”
