Dedicated to expanding and diversifying the orchestral literature, conductor Anthony Parnther brings three new works to life over the months ahead. First up is America 250, written by Patricia Leonard, winner of the Virginia B. Toulmin Prize, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Parnther’s world premiere performance of Leonard’s new work crowns the patriotic program of Dvořák, Ellington, and Gala Flagello with which he makes his ROCO (River Oaks Chamber Orchestra) debut in Houston on February 7.
Next, he joins the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) March 12 – 14 for the world premiere of Phenomenal Queen: Coretta Scott King, a new ISO co-commission celebrating the eponymous American author, activist, and civil rights leader. Composed by American composer James Lee III, who recently completed a season-long tenure as composer-in-residence of the Baltimore Symphony, this will feature the “imaginative phrasing and warm, expressive voice” (Opera News) of soprano Angela Brown. The new commission will be heard alongside works by Brahms, Weber, and Chinese-American composer Chen Yi, represented by her viola concerto Xian shi, with Primrose Competition winner Yu Jin as soloist, on a program that concludes with Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony. It was in the same composer’s Fourth that Parnther previously impressed The Guardian with his “high voltage interpretation that maintained a fine balance between detail and elan,” of which “the finale was edge-of-your-seat stuff.”
This April, the conductor returns to Honolulu’s Hawai’i Symphony for the first complete performance of Raise Hawaiki by composer-in-residence Michael-Thomas Foumai, known for his “vibrant and cinematic” music (The New York Times). Foumai’s two-part choral symphony draws inspiration from Hōkūleʻa, the replica Polynesian double-hulled canoe that made its famed maiden voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti, using exclusively traditional navigational techniques, in 1976. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this culturally significant event, Parnther and the orchestra preview excerpts from Raise Hawaiki in a family-friendly concert featuring narration, storytelling, and projected visuals (April 18), before premiering the complete work in collaboration with the Oʻahu Choral Society to the accompaniment of photos of Hōkūleʻa’s maiden voyage and video from her most recent travels, on a program that opens with the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s Peter Grimes.