Jennifer Higdon

Synopsis

On today’s date in 2002, a high-profile musical event occurred at Philadelphia’s new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The city was hosting the 57th National Conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League, and the Philadelphia Orchestra was celebrating its 100th anniversary with eight new commissions, all to be premiered in the Orchestra’s new Verizon Hall.

On June 12th, the new piece was a Concerto for Orchestra by 39-year-old composer Jennifer Higdon. Her concerto opened the Philadelphia Orchestra’s program, followed by Richard Strauss’ tone-poem Ein Heldenleben. Both pieces were performed before an audience of orchestral professionals from around the country — not to mention Higdon’s proud mother.

Higdon, understandably a little nervous, quipped to a newspaper reporter, “You’ll know my mother because she’ll be the one crying before the piece starts.” She needn’t have worried. Her Concerto for Orchestra was greeted with cheers from both its audience and performers — the latter in typically irreverent fashion, dubbed the new piece Ein Higdonleben.

Higdon, the only woman among the eight composers commissioned for the orchestra’s centennial project, calls herself a “late bloomer” as a composer. She taught herself the flute at 15 and didn’t pursue formal music training until college. She was almost finished with her bachelor’s degree requirements at Bowling Green State University when she started composing her own music.

Music Played in Today's Program

Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962): Concerto for Orchestra; Atlanta Symphony; Robert Spano, conductor; Telarc 80620

On This Day

Births

• 1885 - German-born American composer Werner Josten, in Elbereld

• 1897 - Polish-born French composer Alexandre Tansman, in Lodz

• 1914 - French composer Maurice Ohana, in Casablanca

• 1941 - American jazz pianist and composer, Chick (Armando Anthony) Corea in Chelsea, Massachusetts

• 1952 - Scottish composer and conductor Oliver Knussen, in Glasgow

Deaths

• 1917 - Venezuelan composer, pianist, conductor and singer, (Maria) Teresa Carreño, (Maria) Teresa, 63, in New York City

• 1962 - British composer John Ireland, 82, in Rock Mill, Washington (Sussex), England

Premieres

• 1913 - Florent Schmitt: ballet La Tragédie de Salomé (The Tragedy of Salome), at the Théâtre des Champes-Elysées by the Ballet Russe, Pierre Monteux conducting

• 1917 - Pfitzner: opera Palestrina, in Munich at the Prinzregententheater, with Bruno Walter conducting

• 1926 - Szymanowski: opera King Roger, in Warsaw at the Teatr Wielki

• 1928 - European premiere of Stravinsky: ballet Apollon Musagete, at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in Paris, choreographed by Georges Balanchine. The world premiere performance of this work had occurred in Washington, D.C., on April 27, 1928, choreographed by Adolf Bohm.

• 1938 - Leonard Bernstein’s first public performance as composer-pianist in Brookline, Mass., performing his Music for the Dance Nos. 1 and 2 and Music for Two Pianos with Mildred Spiegel

• 1946 - Prokofiev: opera War and Peace (first version), in Leningrad

• 1952 - Bernstein: chamber opera Trouble in Tahiti, at Brandeis University as part of the first Festival of the Creative Arts, with composer conducting

• 1961 - Martinu: opera The Greek Passion, in Zürich at the Stadttheater

• 1962 - Mayzumi: symphonic poem Samsara, in Tokyo

• 1964 - Britten: church opera Curlew River, in Orford Church, near Aldeburgh

• 1974 - Elie Siegmeister: String Quartet No. 3 (On Hebrew Themes), at Elkins Park, Pennsylvania by the Vieuxtemps Quartet

• 1987 - Morton Feldman: For Samuel Beckett, for chamber ensemble, in Amsterdam

• 2002 - Jennifer Higdon: Concerto for Orchestra, in Philadelphia at the American Symphony Orchestra League National Convention, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting

Others

• 1933 - The first concert performance of the Duke Ellington Orchestra takes place at the London Palladium during the ensemble’s first visit to England. Previously the orchestra had only performed at night clubs, dance halls, hotels and other informal entertainment venues. It would be ten years before Ellington would present a concert performance at Carnegie Hall in New York (on January 23, 1943).