Sarasota Orchestra closes Masterworks series season with world premiere

The Sarasota Orchestra has some special ingredients for its final Masterworks season concert called “A Hero’s Life.” They include guest conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto returning for the first time in eight years, famed violinist Gil Shaham performing Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto, Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Ein Heldenleben” and something new – the world premiere of a new composition by Sarah Gibson.

“Any premiere is always exciting and interesting. It’s like opening a new world,” said Pietro, who has spent part of the last couple of months studying and analyzing the score for Gibson’s “to make this mountain taller.”

The composer said the title comes from a poem by Canadian poet Rupi Kaur called “Legacy,” which was part of her inspiration.

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Gibson, who also plays piano and is half of the piano duo Hocket with Thomas Kotcheff, said she finds inspiration for new works in various ways.

“One of the biggest ways I get inspiration is by collaborating with other people. I’m constantly learning new music that instantly impacts how I’m thinking about music,” she said in a telephone interview. “The other big way I get inspired is by art.”

Her mother was a self-taught painter, and Gibson said she was always surrounded by art and encouraged to take part in creative activities.

“Whenever I’m starting a piece I need to get to a live concert and an art museum. That gets my juices flowing,” she said.

In the case of her newest work – a commission by the League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation – she found inspiration in a sculpture by the late French artist Aristide Maillol at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.

“It’s this massive sculpture of a woman and she’s nude and sitting, at once very large and angular but also soft in some ways,” she said. “Her hair is curly and blowing in the wind. She’s kind of leaning forward with her elbow on her knee.”

Gibson saw it on the day last year when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the long-standing Roe v. Wade decision.

“I just happened to be there, thinking about women’s rights, and how women have had to climb mountains to achieve basic human rights,” she said. “I went down a rabbit hole with that.”

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Incorporating some musical sketches she had developed earlier that she wanted to work with, Gibson began creating “to make this mountain taller.” There is no story (unlike the evening’s performance of Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Ein Heldenleben” – “A Hero’s Life” that Pietro will lead).

But she hopes audiences will feel the emotions behind it.

“I wanted it to feel as though there was some pain, some build up, a call to action. I wanted it to feel like there was some frustration and hope in the end, that we have a lot of work to do, but we can do this. It’s an emotional narrative that became clear to me when I was inspired by this sculpture.”

Pietro, a guest conductor who last led the Sarasota Orchestra in 2015, said he has conducted many new pieces in the past.

“I start analyzing, marking it pretty heavily so my score ends up almost like a painting,” he said. “Once that digestion takes place, I either get in touch with the composer, or sometimes not. Sometimes we just see how it goes in rehearsal, but I always leave room for working out things.”

He now feels comfortable working on world premieres to suggest “things here or there that I think could work better. I try to get in the brain of the composer about what’s needed. It’s always a back and forth collaboration.”

As part of the commission, four more orchestras will present Gibson’s piece after the Sarasota performances, including November concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

“Writing an orchestra piece is such a gift and to be able to have a secured premiere and four more orchestras to perform it after is just wonderful,” she said. “I’m a pianist and if I want to write a piano piece, I can always just play it. Composers don’t write orchestra pieces unless they know it’s going to be performed. They take a long time.”

‘A Hero’s Life’

Sarasota Orchestra, with guest conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and violinist Gil Shaham. 7:30 p.m. March 31 and April 1, and 2:30 p.m. April 2 at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $37-$99. 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: World premiere closes Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks concert season