My Weekend with Palomar and Orion
No it wasn’t an astronomical observation trip to SoCal, but rather two nights of music by The Palomar Ensemble (of Accessible Contemporary Music) and the local Orion Ensemble joined by guest artists Amy Conn and Baird Dodge.
After the concert on Saturday night I chided Seth Boustead about his group’s
first name which is “accessible” because the concert was just that. And that
made it very enjoyable. I noted a few crossover players in Palomar: Violinist
Austin Wulliman (who also plays with dal niente) and flute player Alicia Poot (who also plays with Anaphora), who tooted a great piccolo too.
There was a composition by 16 year old Daniel Silliman for flute, cello and piano that amazed me. Congrats were definitely in order at the reception afterwards.
Sunday I ventured up from the South Loop to Evanston’s Nichols Concert Hall for Orion (”The Hunter” in astronomical terms). Two song cycles were offered along with a Dohnanyi quintet. Soprano Amy Conn was substituted for Alicia Berneche (who is ill), and she did a wonderful job on short notice with “Six German Songs” by Spohr and “Which Way Home?” by Drew Hemenger (a commission for Berneche).
The Dohnanyi quintet for string quartet and piano from 1902 was new to me but didn’t touch my inner ear-bone. There were too many 19th century-isms carried over into the 20th.
The Music Institute of Chicago has some interesting concerts coming up in 2010 that I’m putting on my calendar. Check out http://www.musicinstituteofchicago.org/index.php
on November 22nd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Great job by ACM putting emerging composers (or composers new to the Chicago audience) in the spotlight. Palomar core members Alyson Berger (cello) and KT Somero (clarinet) gave solid performances throughout the evening.
After the concert, it was great to meet composer Stephen Gardner who dropped in to hear his piece – from IRELAND!
Christie Miller