ICCSO spring concert honors tradition of adventurous music
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This is a big anniversary year for me. In addition to this being my 30th season working as an artist in Iowa, it is my 25th season as conductor of the Iowa City Community String Orchestra.
Throughout my career, I have commissioned and premiered many new works, believing that the creation of new art is essential to sustaining our tradition. From its very beginning, the ICCSO has presented works by living composers. The founding conductor, former UI Professor of Theory and Composition, Bill Hibbard, programmed several significant contemporary string works, as did his successor, former UI Professor of Violin, Allen Ohmes.
Since 1998, when I took over as conductor, we have programmed 52 works by living composers, 26 of which have been world premieres. The orchestra members enjoy creating new art and embrace the challenges inherent in being the first to perform a work.
Our spring program, to be presented Sunday, April 16 at 3 p.m. at the Englert Theatre, honors our tradition of adventurous programming. Three works for viola and strings by our most frequently performed composer, Iowa City’s Michael Kimber, will be performed by violist Donghee Han. Donghee is finishing her doctorate at the University of Iowa this spring and her DMA essay is a recording project of six of Kimber’s works for solo viola. Donghee and the ICCSO will premiere “Quest” for viola and strings. This is the fourth Kimber work for viola and strings that the ICCSO has premiered.
In addition, Donghee will perform “Night Music” (premiered in 2014) and “My Cute Kitten,” a short work written all in pizzicato that will serve as the encore for the program. Donghee’s DMA essay documents the extensive body of work that Kimber has composed since moving to Iowa City in 2004. Many organizations have premiered his works, but none have premiered as many as the ICCSO and Red Cedar Chamber Music.
The program also includes two works for string orchestra: the beautiful Elgar “Serenade," Op. 20, and one of the most important contemporary works for strings, Ernst Krenek’s “Symphonic Elegy.” The Krenek was composed in 1946 in memoriam of Anton Webern following his tragic accidental death in Austria at the hands of an American soldier. Webern, along with Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, was a leader of the Second Viennese School, the compositional movement using twelve-tone techniques.
It is a hauntingly beautiful work and has been played much less than it deserves over the last 75 years. In fact, for years, the only available recording was a 1951 recording by the New York Philharmonic with Dimitri Mitropolous conducting. The ICCSO has performed the work twice in the past, once in 1984 and again in 1991.
We hope that you will come participate in our tradition of celebrating great music for strings, both new and old. As always, our concerts are free and families with children are encouraged to attend.
Carey Bostian has been the conductor of the ICCSO for 25 years.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: ICCSO spring concert honors tradition of adventurous music
