Pasadena Symphony is On the Move…
It seems only a few months ago that Pasadena Symphony was on the ropes. That was 2008 when stuff hit. But now, with Paul Ian Zdunek having announced that the Symphony is in the black, the Pasadena Symphony Association is on the move in a really big way.
Pasadena Symphony announced today the naming of Altadena resident Peter Boyer as its composer-in-residence for the 2012-2013 season. Somewhat presumptively the organization says it has commissioned Boyer to compose and record with the symphony musicians what will be his most major work to date, a Symphony No. 1.
Boyer is a top-rated composer of new music having had his orchestral works, which have included “Ellis Island: The Dream of America” and “The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers”, performed by nearly 100 major American symphony orchestras at least 275 times with narration on the works at the premieres read by celebrities as Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Cherry Jones. He is also a Hollywood darling in his assistance to major film composers as an orchestrator.
In an interview posted on his website, Propulsive Music (an apt description of what I have heard) he tells journalist and art consultant Steve Metcalf that he fashions himself as a participant equally in three music worlds: classical music, cinematic works, and higher education.
“Traditionally,” he tells Metcalf, “the worlds of the concert hall, the film and television industry, and academia have been strictly separate.” He continues, “The personal irony for me is that, though part of my life is in academia, I’m about as far from an ‘academic composer’ as one can get!”
Boyer is right. He has shown his chops in all three worlds. In film, he has contributed to orchestrations to 20 films for all the major studios as well as the Academy Awards show, and others. We have already mentioned his success in the concert hall with his works realized by Keith Lockhart at Boston Pops, Miguel Harth-Bedoya at the Fort Worth Symphony, and Gerard Schwarz at Seattle Symphony, and the list goes on. In academia his tape-measure-long list includes tenure at Claremont Graduate University (who have provided the contribution to Pasadena Symphony for the commissioned work), a B.A. and an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Rhode Island College, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. At the Claremont Graduate University, Boyer holds the Helen M. Smith Chair in Music and ranks as a Full Professor.
Musically, Boyer says he understands the full spectrum of today’s music stretching from John Williams to Elliott Carter—but professes a leaning toward the more avant-garde styles, although he admits his most popular and performed works have been cinematic in style.
Pasadena Symphony under Zdunek will develop the Fresh Ink Society to keep the composer-in-residence program moving forward in coming years, following the seed money provided by the Trustees of the Claremont Graduate University.
“This Society is a recently formed new music collective of the regions most enthusiastic community leaders that are helping to realize the commission, performance and recording of its first project,” Zdunek said.
Names of participants in this new Society have not revealed as of today.
Boyer’s Symphony No. 1 is set for its premiere performance with the Pasadena Symphony at its April 27, 2012 concert. Details on the season are to be announced in the next few days.
By Bill Peters
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