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World Renowned Composer Coming to Hear
VSO Perform her Work
JoanTower will attend VSO performance of Purple Rhapsody October 7
Hampton Roads, VA… Internationally known contemporary composer Joan Tower will visit Hampton Roads to hear her Purple Rhapsody performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in Norfolk, Saturday, October 7, 8pm, Chrysler Hall.
Tower has been hailed by New Yorker magazine as one of the most successful women composers of all time. Her Purple Rhapsody viola concerto was commissioned by the Virginia Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with a grant from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress.
The Rhapsody will be performed by violist Paul Neubauer, to whom Tower dedicated the work. Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one of this generation’s quintessential artists.
Composer Joan Tower has become one of today’s most popular composers, creating music for nearly every genre of instrumental music, including orchestra, chamber ensembles and concerti for different instruments. Among her most popular works are her five tongue-in-cheek Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman.
Of Purple Rhapsody, Tower has said, “The sound of the viola has always reminded me of the color purple – a deep kind of luscious purple. In the concerto, I try to make the solo viola sing – trying to take advantage on occasion (not always) of the viola’s inherent melodic abilities. This is not an easy task since the viola is one of the tougher instruments to pit against an orchestra.”
In addition to Tower’s “finished” work, the orchestra will perform Schubert’s famous “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in a “finished” form. Swiss conductor Mario Venzago, Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony has “finished” the work by adding the scherzo completed by a Schubert scholar from the composer’s sketches. Why the symphonic fragment of two completed movements and part of a third scherzo movement was left uncompleted by the composer still mystifies scholars.
Note:
While in Hampton Roads, Ms. Tower will speak to ODU and Governor’s Magnet School students on the campus at ODU, Friday, September 22, at 2pm.
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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