Hannah von Wiehler
Friday, May 17, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049 (1719-20)
Augusta Read Thomas Haemosu’s Celestial Chariot Ride (World Premiere)
Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
The celebrated American composer Augusta Read Thomas has been described as “a true virtuoso composer” by The New Yorker. Her music is “always in motion, as if coming perpetually out of a magician’s hat…playful and subtle, dancing on light feet. It is music that conjures" (Huffington Post) and “reaffirms the vitality of orchestral music” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
In her new work, Haemosu’s Celestial Chariot Ride, commissioned by Sejong and written for the ensemble and saxophone soloist Steven Banks, she imagines “panoramas seen and experiences incited when taking a ride with Haemosu [the revered Korean Sun God] through sparkling, empathetic, and radiant adventures. The saxophone soloist steers the flying chariot, escorting us across those auras, offering views from the vantage point of the sky.” The 30-minute saxophone concerto is inspired by six Korean Sijo poems (from the 16th to 20th centuries) that present beautiful scenes, energies, and moods and is performed in six movements without pause. Complete program note and text of Sijo poems available HERE.
Thomas says, “Music for me is an embrace of the world, a way to open myself to being alive — in my body, in my sounds, and in my mind. It has been exhilarating to compose for Sejong Soloists and Steven Banks – their brilliant musicianship, insightful interpretations, superb ears for musical nuance, and generous empathy enrich the lives of countless human beings.”
Conducting Thomas’s world premiere on May 17 is Hannah von Wiehler, known as a trail-blazer and free-thinker, having launched her own orchestra and created critically-acclaimed multi-genre, multi-media programming for it. She also has a doctorate from the University of Oxford, and a natural affinity for languages: she speaks seven languages, and is now tackling her eighth. She is the founding Music Director of Orchestra VOX, an ensemble dedicated to the intersection of classical music and social impact, based the UK.
Also on the program on May 17, and performed without a conductor, are Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, with Sejong violinist Stephen Kim and flutists Sooyun Kim and Yoobin Son as soloists; and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
Tickets start at $44
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