Arts orgs honor birthdays of living musical legends
For the 2016-17 season, performing arts organizations had a trio of birthday celebrations, with minimalism pioneers Steve Reich and Philip Glass both turning 80 on Oct. 3, 2016, and Jan. 31, 2017, respectively.聽
The San Francisco Symphony started its season last September with a week of Mr. Reich鈥檚 music, including his Three Movements for its opening night gala. And now throughout his birthday month of February, composer John Adams celebrated by having his works performed by top-notch orchestras.
Mr. Adams was composer-in-residence with the San Francisco Symphony early on in his career, from 1982 to 1985.聽"The pillars of the relation here is started in 1978 when he was appointed Contemporary Music Advisor," says Matthew Spivey, SFS director of artistic planning. "The New and Unusual Music series he curated showed a real commitment back then towards furthering the repertoire.鈥�
And the SFS honored Adams鈥檚 birthday by programming his works over a three-week period, including having Adams curate a weekend at SFS鈥檚 popular in-house SoundBox space. In early March, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will present a new version of Adams鈥檚 seminal 鈥淣ixon in China鈥� opera, with Adams himself conducting. The St. Louis Symphony, New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony will also be presenting concerts dedicated to Adams鈥檚 compositions that month. The musical revelry isn鈥檛 limited to orchestras or venues in the United States. Adams鈥檚 compositions will be heard in England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands at various times from early April through mid-June.
To honor Mr. Glass, Stanford Live at Stanford University opened its season last September with Glass鈥檚 complete piano 茅tudes as performed by the composer and four other pianists. Los Angeles Opera, in turn, staged Glass鈥檚 impressive 鈥淎khnaten鈥� back in November with lyrics in English, ancient Egyptian, biblical Hebrew, and Akkadian. 鈥淏irthday celebrations are a great opportunity to reflect on these really important people,鈥� Mr. Spivey says. 鈥淥pen a music textbook in a hundred years, and their contributions will be there alongside [those of] Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky.鈥�
