A Jennifer Higdon Update

If you remember the performance of Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto with the Harrisburg Symphony in March of the 2007-2008 Season with our principal percussionist Chris Rose as soloist, consider this post “an update.”

The composer was so impressed with his playing, she arranged the orchestral part of the concerto for band – which Chris then premiered with his “other” ensemble, the United States Marine Band - The President's Own -  on May 10, 2009.

Usually, you'd see Chris in the Forum, along with other members of the symphony, in “concert black” – white tie and tails for the men, black dresses for the women. Here's a photo taken after the premiere with Master Sergeant Christopher Rose with composer Jennifer Higdon (looking very civilian) and conductor Col. Michael Colburn following the premiere of the band version of Higdon's Percussion Concerto.

I've posted it here today (with Jennifer's permission) because she'd just posted it on Facebook, which she finally broke down and signed up for (yeah, there goes a lot of composing time, I bet...).

In past seasons with the Harrisburg Symphony, Stuart Malina has conducted several works by Jennifer Higdon – music aside, they were classmates at Curtis and were born a day apart – in addition to the Percussion Concerto, there was “blue cathedral” and, this past season, 'Skyline' from “CityScape.”

Earlier this year, Higdon won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto, composed for Hilary Hahn who then recorded the work for Deutsche Grammophone. In another post, I'd written about listening to the concerto when the Liverpool performance was broadcast on-line through the BBC last summer.

That recording will now be released on September 21st, 2010.