Program Notes
COSUSS Spring 2025 program notes
Christopher Theofanidis (b. 1967) has had performances by many leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies, among many others. He has also served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony during their 2006-7 season, for which he wrote a violin concerto for Sarah Chang.
Mr. Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship to France to study with Tristan Murail at IRCAM, a Tanglewood fellowship, and two fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy award for best composition for his chorus and orchestra work, The Here and Now, based on the poetry of Rumi, and in 2017 for his bassoon concerto. His orchestral work, Rainbow Body, has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the new millennium, having been performed by over 150 orchestras internationally.
Mr. Theofanidis has written a ballet for the American Ballet Theatre, a work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of their ‘New Brandenburg’ series, and two operas for the San Francisco and Houston Grand Opera companies. Thomas Hampson sang the lead role in the San Francisco opera. His work for Houston, The Refuge, features six sets of international non-Western musicians alongside the opera musicians. He has a long-standing relationship with the Atlanta Symphony and Maestro Robert Spano, and has made four recordings with them, including his concert length oratorio, Creation/Creator, which was featured at the SHIFT festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. this year with the ASO, chorus, and soloists. His work, Dreamtime Ancestors, for the orchestral consortium, New Music for America, has been played by over fifty orchestras over the past two seasons. He has served as a delegate to the US-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program, and he is a former faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University as well as the Juilliard School. Mr. Theofanidis is currently a professor at Yale University, and composer-in-residence and co-director of the composition program at the Aspen Music Festival.
Theofanidis’ Rainbow Body brings together two themes, one audible and the other abstract: a melody by 12th-century composer Hildegard von Bingen joined with the concept of Rainbow Body. Rainbow Body is the Tibetan Buddhist belief that when an enlightened soul physically dies, it dissolves into pure light and is absorbed back into the universe. This thirteen-minute, single-movement work was commissioned by the Houston Symphony and premiered in 2000 under the baton of Robert Spano. It received a warm reception and went on to win the 2003 London Masterprize, securing its place in the contemporary orchestral canon.
Rainbow Body is based upon von Bingen’s Ave Maria, o auctrix vite (“Hail Mary, source of life”), which is unfolded gradually – fragments of the melody are sketched out and then von Bingen’s original theme is played simply and reverently in the strings. As the music continues, the melody is deconstructed, recombined, and presented in various forms. Moving fluidly between shimmery reflection and vigorous bursts of sound, the work builds in intensity toward a full-orchestra climax – only to recede again into a final moment of light and release.
While not included in the original score, a new tradition was born during a 2003 rehearsal with the London Symphony Orchestra, when the musicians spontaneously vocalized briefly mid-piece, along with the tam-tam hits that Theofanidis described “a kind of sudden ‘technicolor’ moment of brightness.” The
London Symphony’s conductor Leopold Stokowski liked the effect so much that he decided to include this new element in the performance. Theofanidis stated “They did that in rehearsal of my piece, and once I got over the shock, I realized I rather liked the effect – like the sudden appearance of a choir or something, just below the radar- the effect being, ‘what was that?’” This tradition is optional, but when implemented, a human, visceral burst of energy is added to this otherwise ethereal work.
Described as “alluring” and “stirring” by The New York Times, the “arresting” (Gramophone), “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle), and “exhilarating” (Chicago Tribune) music of Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been commissioned and performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Kronos Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Atlanta Symphony, Sō Percussion, PRISM Quartet, and Dallas Winds, among many others. Cuong’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, National Gallery of Art, and Library of Congress, and his works for wind ensemble have amassed over a thousand performances worldwide, including at Midwest, WASBE, and CBDNA conferences.
A composer known for his imagination and colorful voice, Cuong frequently blends the whimsical with the profound, often finding new expressive possibilities through unexpected instrumental pairings and textures. His works thus include concerti for tuba and dueling oboes, percussion quartets utilizing wine glasses and sandpaper, and pieces for double reed sextet, cello octet, and solo snare drum. This eclecticism extends to the variety of musical groups he writes for, and he has worked closely with ensembles ranging from middle school bands to Grammy-winning orchestras and chamber ensembles. His wind ensemble works are widely performed, having been programmed by the world’s preeminent wind bands such as the Dallas Winds and military bands including the United States Navy Band, “President’s Own” Marine Band, “Pershing’s Own” Army Band, Army Field Band, Coast Guard Band, and Air Force Band. These works have also been performed by the top wind ensembles at academic institutions such as the University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, University of North Texas, Louisiana State University, University of Miami, and Michigan State University. Passionate about bringing all these different facets of the contemporary music community together, his notable works include Vital Sines, a concerto for Eighth Blackbird and the United States Navy Band; Re(new)al, a concerto for percussion quartet with a variety of ensemble accompaniments; and a saxophone quartet concerto entitled Second Nature.
Currently the Pacific Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence, Cuong was also the California Symphony’s Young American Composer-in-Residence from 2020-23. He has held artist residencies at Copland House, Yaddo, Ucross, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and at Dumbarton Oaks, where he served as the 2020 Early-Career Musician-in-Residence. His music has been awarded the Barlow Prize, William D. Revelli Prize, Frederick Fennell Prize, Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, Barlow Endowment Commission, ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, Cortona Prize, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, and Boston GuitarFest Composition Prize.
Cuong serves as Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches composition, orchestration, and music theory. He has also served on the faculties of the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and Juilliard Summer Composition. He holds degrees in music composition from Princeton University (MFA/PhD), the Curtis Institute of Music (Artist Diploma), and the Peabody Conservatory (BM/MM). His mentors include Jennifer Higdon, David Serkin Ludwig, Donnacha Dennehy, Steve Mackey, Dan Trueman, Dmitri Tymoczko, Kevin Puts, and Oscar Bettison.
Cuong’s Re(new)al: Percussion Quartet Concerto was commissioned by the Albany Symphony and GE Renewable Energy for their contemporary ensemble Dogs of Desire, eventually evolving into three versions for different types of ensembles: sinfonietta, orchestra, and wind ensemble. All three versions of the work emphasize the work’s environmental themes and collaborative spirit, and serve as a celebration of renewable energy and cooperation. The solo quartet functions as a single entity, while Cuong’s inventive writing is evident in the accompanying instrumentation (which includes compressed air cans and foil-prepared vibraphones) and the Re(new)al is a joyful toast – both literal and symbolic – to a cleaner, more collaborative future.
Re(new)al is constructed of three continuous movements, each inspired by the power of hydro, wind, and solar energies. Hydro begins charmingly, as the quartet toasts with tuned crystal glasses that mimic flowing water. The soloists are gradually enveloped by the orchestra, like an object becoming submerged by a body of water. Wind lives up to its name as the soloists create a virtuosic whirlwind of drumset patterns. The quartet’s solos are inspired by bass and drum licks from the 1990s, including a pattern from DJ Hype. The turbine-like drum patterns evoke rushing wind, the entire second movement represents the power of nature combined with the capturing of energy by wind technology. Solar employs shimmering metallic percussion – glockenspiel, vibraphone (prepared with aluminum foil for an electronic effect), and cymbals – bring sunlight to mind, and the movement is full of warmth and glow.
African-American composer Florence Price (1887 – 1953) began her musical training with her piano teacher mother’s guidance, then continued on to the New England Conservatory of Music, where she earned her Soloist’s Diploma in Organ and a Teacher’s Diploma in Piano. After her graduation, Price married Thomas Jewell Price, then worked as a music teacher while raising her two children in Arkansas and then Atlanta. Racial tension and violence increased in the South, and after great escalation, the Price family joined the Great Migration north to Chicago in 1927, where Price made a name for herself as a pianist, organist, teacher, and at last, serious composer. After ending her marriage (which had become abusive), Price tried her hand at large-scale orchestral composition, despite her limited free time as a single working mother. The year that she completed her Symphony in E minor, she joked with a friend, “But, oh dear me, when shall I ever be so fortunate again as to break a foot!” Price entered her symphony into the prestigious Rodman Wanamaker Competition, winning the coveted first prize in 1932.
Her opus caught the ear of conductor Frederick Stock, who led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in its world premiere in 1933. Price had not been formally invited to have her music performed at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair (ironically themed “Century of Progress”), as the Fair officials refused to feature music by African American composers. However, Chicago’s African American community fought valiantly to be involved with the Fair, wanting a platform to promote their artistic accomplishments. As a result, a Fair-adjacent event was created, called “The Negro in Music”, which included Price’s symphony. This was the first performance by a major American orchestra of a symphony written by an African American woman, and the symphony gained instant acclaim. Both Black newspapers—such as the Chicago Defender—and the White press, including the Chicago Daily News, sang the symphony’s praises. Following the events of the 1933 World’s Fair, the NAACP successfully lobbied for Illinois legislation to bar racial discrimination from the 1934 Fair.
The symphony’s first movement, Allegro ma non troppo gives a respectful nod to the traditions of sonata form while also undeniably to the musical idioms of Price’s roots. Price’s admiration for Antonin Dvořák’s New World Symphony can clearly be heard in the syncopated bassoon solo that opens the movement. The main themes of the exposition are based upon the pentatonic scales of E minor and G major, echoing the cadence and style of African-American spirituals and giving a distinctly American flavor to the European structure of the movement. Price also makes the recapitulation her own, plays with the returning melodies by dissecting and recombining them rather than restating them. The entire movement is a masterful combination of inherited European tradition, the energy of West African rhythms, and melodic inspiration of Black American folk music.
The Largo, maestoso is slow and reverent by contrast. A brass choir plays a stately, hymn-like theme, which then flows into a verse-refrain form, with gentle interjections from the woodwinds. The following section in C♯ minor moves forward – true to its Poco più mosso marking – with a darker intensity, before succumbing to the return of the hymn, which includes a delicate clarinet obbligato as well as cathedral chimes that hint at a heavenly homecoming. Anchored in Price’s deep respect for communal faith and resilience, this Largo feels at once grounded in African-American experience and universal in its soaring hopefulness.
Eschewing the European custom of employing a scherzo or minuet for the third movement, Price instead composed Juba Dance, an exuberant explosion of African diasporic rhythm and movement. The Juba dance was born when African slaves used their own bodies as percussion instruments to accompany their songs, and these origins can be heard in the pizzicato strings and African drums which imitate clapping hands and stomping feet. All set within a lively rondo form, this movement is an act of cultural remembrance but also of reinvention, as it juxtaposes the traditional rondo structure with centuries of West African, Caribbean, and African-American energy.
Finale – Presto, the final movement, takes off with a stormy E minor theme, utilizing the full power of the ensemble. Price centers this quasi-rondo on an exhilarating alternation of tension and release: aggressive and percussive motifs contrast against calmer, spacious episodes. One can imagine fiddles, banjos, and slide-whistles from the symphony, and throughout the movement, Price employs the ever-present pentatonic scale as well as cross-rhythms and three against two patterns that add complexity and an enjoyable rhythmic tension to the music. The prestissimo coda drives the finale to a thrilling close, the perfect ending to a defiant, joyous affirmation of cultural pride and artistic innovation.
Program notes by Lauren Servias
Biographies for Christopher Theofanidis and Viet Cuong written by the composers
