Annapolis Symphony stages world premiere of climate change work (Baltimore Sun)

Spring 2024

by Mary Carole McCauley

When Nicky Sohn was 20 months old, she picked out the melody for “Brahms Lullaby” on her battery-powered toy piano after hearing the song at daycare in her native South Korea. “My parents totally freaked out,” the petite 32-year-old said. “They got me a piano and lessons right after that.” She progressed so rapidly that when she was 14, her five-member family emigrated to the U.S. so she could pursue professional-level musical training. But it turned out that what really fascinated the teen wasn’t the piano — it was composing new combinations of notes and chords. “I’ve always had a lot to say,” Sohn said, laughing. “And I really like working collaboratively with other people.”

This weekend, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra will perform the world premiere of Sohn’s 23-minute “Symphony No. 1” a four-movement piece inspired by climate change which the Maryland group co-commissioned with the California-based Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music [through their Composing Earth program]. But Sohn’s world premiere is merely part of an ambitious weekend concert series that also will bring the acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt to Annapolis to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano No. 4, a piece with which the pianist is closely associated. In addition, the orchestra will tackle the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s challenging, infrequently-performed “Roman Festivals.”

It’s the kind of adventurous and sophisticated line-up that music lovers might expect to find in the nation’s major concert halls, not in the multipurpose, 750-seat Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. And it’s just one more example of how the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is offering its audiences the musical equivalent of caviar on a chicken dinner budget. For example, Pratt performed in 2022 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which has a 52-week performing season, employs 81 musicians full-time and has a budget this year of $30 million. In contrast, the Annapolis Symphony has a rotating roster of 70 professional freelance musicians, a performing season of roughly 15 weeks and a $3 million budget. But José-Luis Novo, the Annapolis Symphony’s music director since 2005, has acquired a formidable contact list in his decades-long international conducting career, and he’s not afraid to use it. “Since my time as a student at Peabody [in the 1980s] I have known of the excellence of the Annapolis Symphony,” Pratt wrote in an email. “José-Luis and I were colleagues together at [North Carolina’s Eastern Music Festival] for a number of years and got to know each other a bit. We are looking forward to working together.”

Pratt originally was scheduled to perform in Annapolis in May 2020.  But the concert was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it took four years to reschedule. The pianist wrote that he thinks of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto as “a dear old friend” that he first performed in 1992 when he burst onto the international scene by winning the Naumberg International Piano Competition. Over the decades, Pratt wrote, he has acquired the familiarity with the concerto and “comfort level needed to continue asking questions, to probe deeper, and understand more and more layers as the personality of the piece fully unveils over time.” Nor is Pratt the only world-class performer on the Annapolis Symphony’s schedule this season; the Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero soloed with the symphony in September, and the legendary Spanish guitarist Pepe Romero took the stage in November.

Novo said he thinks his symphony’s reputation has “gone up quite a lot” in recent years since the musicians began performing more regularly at Strathmore Hall in North Bethesda with its pristine acoustics. That attracted top-flight talent and generated music industry buzz. “Once we started bringing in these high-level artists, they began talking among themselves,” Novo said, “and that creates future collaborations.”

Sohn’s commission came about through Novo’s ties to Frank, who was composer-in-residence at the Annapolis Symphony from 2011 to 2013. The Annapolis Symphony formed a partnership with Frank’s Creative Academy of Music to support emerging artists, and the two groups jointly commissioned Sohn to create a symphonic work inspired by climate change. “It’s been really an eye-opening experience,” Sohn said. “Musicians can get so caught up in our training that it’s easy to lose sight of what’s going on in the world.” Her symphony is inspired by memories of the deep blue sky she loved as a child — an experience she fears is being denied her younger countrymen.

“When I was growing up in South Korea, we took it for granted that we would see the blue sky every day,” she said. “But when I went back as an adult, pollution blowing in from the coast of China meant that people rarely saw blue sky. Kids in Korea today sometimes paint the sky gray, and I think that’s sad.” She suggested that audience members listen for a theme in the first movement performed by the celeste, which resembles a small piano. That theme will repeat in different guises throughout all four movements. And she wants listeners to ask themselves why she chose to write about such a serious topic in a way that is lively and even optimistic. “I didn’t want to write a gloomy climate piece, which happens a lot,” Sohn said. “My symphony ends in a way that is very positive and energetic. It is important to think about the future in a hopeful way.”

Article from the Baltimore Sun