Scheherazade program wraps orchestra’s season in Palos Heights
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s Scheherazade concert not only closes the group’s 2021-22 season but also features the last of three world premieres from composer-in-residence Martha Horst.
“I’m thrilled that they honored their commitment to present this piece,” said Horst, who began her tenure as composer-in-residence during Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2019-20 season.
Horst’s “Reverberations” debuts May 14 at Trinity Christian College’s Ozinga Chapel in Palos Heights.
“I wrote this piece in approximately three months. That would have been in 2019. The due date was in March 2020 so I was literally putting it in the mail as the COVID lockdown was happening,” said Horst, of Normal.
“It’s written for a standard-size orchestra, and it features little cells that echo through the different instruments of the orchestra and mimic echoes of reverberating through an acoustic hall.
“The use of the word ‘reverberation’ can refer to an echo sound in a room but we also use the word as in something reverberates with me like the effect of COVID. It’s also about ideas coming back in a memory sort of way.”
Horst won Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2019 Classical Evolve composition competition with a piece titled “emergere” after workshopping the piece with music director Stilian Kirov.
“The way they did the contest, which is really clever, is you applied to be considered. Then they had three finalists and asked us to write a piece quickly for this large ensemble subset of the orchestra,” she said.
“This was the first time I worked with Stilian. Before the pieces were performed, he sat down with each of us for 20 minutes and went over things in the score.
“Audience members could even participate like ‘American Idol’ and help choose who they thought should be the composer-in-residence.”
Horst, whose piece “Among the Arbor” world premiered on April 22 during Lawrence Axelrod’s piano recital at Museu Nacional da Música in Portugal, was given the opportunity to write three works for Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra as part of winning Classical Evolve.
“Ukko,” which she wrote in summer 2019, world premiered during Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s 42nd opening night in October 2019 while “Quiet Places,” her second piece for the orchestra, world premiered in November 2019.
“Reverberations” was scheduled to world premiere during Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s 201920 season but was delayed due to pandemic rescheduling.
“Now, as we’re coming out of COVID, it’s great to have an opportunity to hear live music,” said Horst, a professor of composition and theory for Illinois State University’s Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts in Normal.
“It’s going to be a wonderful homecoming. I got to know some of the musicians. They were wonderful to work with, and I enjoyed working with the staff. It’s going to be great to see all of them again.”
Conducted by Kirov, the concert was scheduled to feature pianist Alexander Toradze.
Artists Management Company Ltd., which represented Toradze, said he died May 11 in his home in South Bend, Indiana, at 69 years old after suffering heart failure during an April 23 performance with The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Washington.
“Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra extends our deepest condolences to Mr. Toradze’s family, friends and the wider classical music world,” officials said in a prepared statement.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed “Scheherazade,” the program’s title piece.
“It’s a lot of fun but also very colorful so it’ll be wonderful to hear the orchestra in all its different colors. Rimsky-Korsakov’s a master orchestrator,” said Horst, whose piece “Rabbit Hole” world premiered as part of Spektral Quartet’s recent The Bernard Rands Effect concerts.
In a first for Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scheherazade show is being celebrated as the Lois & Stanley Birer UNMemorial Concert and sponsored by the namesakes who are longtime supporters, with each holding the title of Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra life director.
“When we go to a funeral and see all the flowers, we wonder how much the deceased would have loved to see and smell the flowers,” said Stanley Birer in a statement.
“Then a great inspiration came to us. Why not donate a performance of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra before we died and be able to enjoy the pleasure of listening to our orchestra?”