News and Reviews

News: Celebrated composer joins ViVA Top Ten
January 2009

Ground-breaking young American composer Nico Muhly, whose recent accolades have included composing the score for box office hit 'The Reader', is the latest star to create a special commission for sinfonia ViVA as part of its Orchestral Shorts programme.

For their 2008/09 and 2009/10 season, the Orchestra has commissioned ten pop-song length pieces from a variety of composers, to be performed live and then recorded for free download from sinfonia ViVA's website: www.vivaorch.co.uk

The new commission entitled Eager Music by the 28-year-old composer and keyboardist will be premiered at Derby's Assembly Rooms on Tuesday Jan 27 at a concert supported by Rolls-Royce plc, Derby City Council, Derby LIVE, Orchestras Live and Arts Council England. The exciting programme combines traditional and contemporary classical music and features Mendelssohn's Symphony No 1 and Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64 as well as Chamber Symphony No 1 by Schoenberg. The Orchestra, under the baton of dynamic Principal Conductor André de Ridder, will also be joined by violinist Antje Weithaas who is one of the most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians of her generation.

Muhly, who will travel from his home in New York to Derby for the premiere, has worked with artists as diverse as Philip Glass and Bjork. He describes the new commission for ViVA as: "A very fast piece of music that attempts to fit as much material in its short three minutes as possible. Two different sets of material explicitly collide in the middle: insistent athletic strings and aggressive, discordant brand and winds. The timpani acts as a sort of cruel school mistress – slowing everybody down with a series of foot stomps."

Andre de Ridder continued: "Nico is rapidly becoming the most prominent composer of his generation. He is familiar to audiences who are not only interested in classical music, notably through his work with Bjork and Anthony Heggarty (Anthony and the Johnsons), as a film composer (The Reader), as a columnist for the Guardian and an opera commission for the Met is also on its way."

He added: "I am delighted that Nico has agreed to join us in this ground-breaking Orchestral Shorts initiative which showcases the very best of contemporary music and makes it available to a worldwide audience via the internet. We at ViVA take seriously our commitment to develop new audiences for classical music as well as giving our regular audiences something new and stimulating."

This is André de Ridder's second season with sinfonia ViVA, which was founded in 1982, and these commissions are typical of his adventurous, but sensitive, approach to programming and commissioning. Among other artists appearing in the coming season are percussionist Colin Currie, violinists Ruth Palmer and Baiba Skride and pianist Lauma Skride, and composers include Arnold, Bach, Barber, Beethoven, Grieg, Steven Mackey, Mozart, Schubert, Wagner and Weill.

Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones - Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945 665 sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk