Apart, Together.
Music is a powerful force of comfort and healing in difficult times. Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra kicked off the 2020-2021 Season with a special series of free video performances recorded in isolation during the pandemic, featuring the music of George Walker, Julius Eastman, and Sakari Dixon Vanderveer. SMCO’s performances of the music of Walker and Dixon Vanderveer are available below.
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Written in 1946 when Walker was just 24, years before he would become the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize, the Lyric eulogizes his grandmother with lush string sounds that give depth to feelings of grief and comfort.
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Sakari Dixon Vanderveer: Of Tattered Threads and Recollections
WORLD PREMIERE
Composer Sakari Dixon Vanderveer offered the following note on this new work, commissioned by SMCO in 2020:
“As a child, I recall being amazed at a certain family quilt. I knew that each patch carried a story although many of these tales had yet to be told. A well-loved heirloom, this quilt retained its beauty and charm in spite of several portions that began to fade or become threadbare.
Like patches of fabric being stitched together, the themes in Of Tattered Threads and Recollections reshape and build upon one another the more they intersect. They do not represent any specific narratives in particular but my fascination with the ways in which memories, like a patchwork quilt, seem to develop a newfound beauty as some stories are retold and embellished while other threads are gradually forgotten. ”
Sakari Dixon Vanderveer
COMPOSER
Recently featured in the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra EarShot New Music Readings, Sakari Dixon Vanderveer seeks to incorporate the unique artistry of her collaborators in each of her compositions. Her most recent premieres include works for Derek Bermel, for Connecting ACO Community; HOCKET, for #What2020SoundsLike; the Salastina Music Society, for Sounds Festive: The Four Seasons x 2; and Maxine Troglauer, for the Composers Conference, which Vanderveer attended as a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellow.
A member of the New Music USA Program Council and a Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Composer Teaching Artist Fellow, her desire to empower youth remains a catalyst behind much of her work. Her multi-level orchestral piece The Enigma of the Twilight Stallion was premiered by MÚSICA! (El Sistema USA) in 2019. She recently founded the You(th) Can Compose! Summer Workshop, a personalized, online intensive program for students ages 10-18 who are new to composing. Vanderveer’s aim is that children from all walks of life will gain access to contemporary music and composition, allowing them to develop a better appreciation and understanding of concert music – new and old – so that they can cherish it and engage with it throughout their entire lives.
Photo courtesy of Sakari Dixon Vanderveer.