Julia Perry's Violin Concerto

Synopsis

On today’s date in 2022, violinist Roger Zahab and the University of Pittsburgh Symphony premiered a Violin Concerto written some 50 years earlier by American composer Julia Perry. In his program notes, Zahab tells the story this way:

“One afternoon near the end of my undergraduate studies — around 1978–my violin teacher stepped out of his office and handed me a score by Julia Perry. She had sent … her Violin Concerto to him in the hope that he might know of someone who would play it, and he handed it to me. I called her phone number and spoke with her mother, who said that Julia was right next to her but unable to talk.”

Perry was unable to talk because she had suffered a debilitating stroke seven years earlier at 46, derailing her career as a composer. Cared for and nursed by her mother, Perry persisted in working on the concerto that would be her final work, as she died shortly after making contact with Zahab. For his part, the violinist made it his mission to create a full orchestral performance score of the concerto from Perry’s surviving sketches, a daunting project that took him decades to complete.

Music Played in Today's Program

Julia Perry (1924-1979): Violin Concerto; Curtis J. Stewart, violin; Experiential Orchestra; James Blachly, conductor; Bright Shiny Things 200

On This Day

Births

• 1648 - (or possibly 1649) Baptismal date of English composer and organist John Blow, in Newark, Nottinghamshire

• 1685 - German-born British composer George Frideric Handel, as “Georg Friedrich Händel,” in Halle (Saxony)

• 1900 - American composer Elinor Remick Warren, in Los Angeles

• 1920 - American composer Hall Overton, in Bangor, Michigan

Deaths

• 1704 - Austrian composer and organist Georg Muffat, 50, in Passau, Germany

• 1934 - English composer Sir Edward Elgar, 76, in Worcester

• 1983 - English composer Henry Howells, 90, in London

Premieres

• 1732 - Handel: oratorio Esther in London at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, by an ensemble including the Children of the Chapel Royal, on the occasion (in England) of Handel’s 47th birthday (Gregorian date: Mar. 5)

• 1835 - Halévy: opera La Juive (The Jewess), at the Paris Opéra

• 1854 - Liszt: symphonic poem, Les Préludes, in Weimar, conducted by the composer

• 1882 - Chadwick: Symphony No. 1, by the Boston Symphony

• 1903 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Preludes Nos. 1, 2, and 5, from Op. 23 and Variations on a Theme of Chopin, in Moscow, by the composer (Julian date: Feb. 10)

• 1913 - Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder, in Vienna

• 1916 - Griffes: White Peacock for piano, by Winifred Christie in New York City

• 1923 - Ernest Schelling: A Victory Ball, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1945 - Villa-Lobos: Choros No. 12 for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony with the composer conducting

• 1956 - Leon Kirchner: Piano Concerto No. 1, in New York City, composer at the piano

• 1962 - Stravinsky: A Sermon, A Narrative and A Prayer, in Basle (Switzerland), conducted by Paul Sacher (to whom the work is dedicated)