Synopsis
On today’s date in 1998, in Purchase, New York, the Westchester Philharmonic gave the premiere performance of a new flute concerto by 41-year old composer Melinda Wagner.
Her concerto won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1999 — a gratifying mark of recognition for Wagner, who claims she had developed 20 years of calluses from all the rejections that are the common experience of most young composers in America. Along with the bumps and scrapes, Wagner had picked up a number of other honors along the way, including awards, grants, and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, Meet the Composer and ASCAP, to name just a few.
“Composition is like writing a kind of love letter to performers. They will be interpreting something that is incredibly personal, so it feels like a love affair. As for the audience, to try to try to second-guess them to figure out what they’re going to like, and write that, would be an insult to them. I just hope they can plug into the communication that’s happening between the performers and me,” she said.
Music Played in Today's Program
Melinda Wagner (b. 1957): Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion; Paul Lustig Dunkel, flute; Westchester Philharmonic; Mark Mandarano, conductor; Bridge 9098
On This Day
Births
1656 - French composer and viola da gamba virtuoso, Marin Marais, in Paris
1804 - French composer, pianist and teacher (Jeanne-) Louise Farrenc (née Dumont), in Paris
Deaths
1809 - Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn, 77, in Vienna
1967 - American composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn, 51, in New York City
Premieres
1817 - Rossini: La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), at La Scala in Milan
1884 - Puccini: opera Le Villi (The Willies), in Milan at the Teatro dal Verme
1961 - Penderecki: Threnody in Memory of the Victims of Hiroshima for strings, in Warsaw
1998 - Melinda Wagner: Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion, at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Purchase, with flutist Paul Lustig Dunkel and the Westchester Philharmonic, Mark Mandarano conducting. This work won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.