On today’s date in 2006, the Minnesota Orchestra did something quite unusual: it gave a public concert consisting of nine works that had never been performed by a major orchestra, all written by young composers at the start of their careers. The new pieces had been workshopped and rehearsed the previous week as part of the Orchestra’s annual Composers Institute for promising new works by promising new composers. The public concert was billed as “Future Classics,” suggesting that though the pieces were new, they would have staying power.
One of the works on the program that chilly December night in Minneapolis was selected as the audience’s favorite, and has also gone on to be programmed again by not only the Minnesota Orchestra, but others around the world. The work was by a Pennsylvania-born composer named Missy Mazzoli titled These Worlds In Us. Dedicated to her father, it ruminates on his service in the Vietnam War.
Blogging after its 2006 performance in Minneapolis, Mazzoli wrote: “Participating in the [Composer] Institute was the single most important thing I have ever done as a composer, not only for the performance but also for the long love affair with the orchestra this week has inspired.”
Missy Mizzoli (b. 1980) – These Worlds in Us (Arctic Philharmonic; Tim Weiss, cond.) Bis 2572