All-American concert filled with tension, excitement
Published in the Reno-Gazette Journal 10/25/05
By Richard Lecomte

The musical themes of America presented Saturday night during the Reno Chamber Orchestra concert varied as greatly as the nation they tried to depict. The orchestra, performing at Nightingale Concert Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno, smoothly surveyed this jagged landscape under the direction of two -- count them, two -- conductors. The all-American-composer concert showed that music from the 20th and 21st centuries can be accessible and dynamic.

Joan Tower's "Made in America," a commission for several small orchestras throughout the nation, led off the evening. Tower herself conducted the orchestra through this pounding, tense, seismically turbulent piece. Her "America," part of the Ford Made in America program, seemed to portray a nation in upheaval -- it sounded like the soundtrack to the 2000 presidential election.

The orchestra's raw, breathy performance mostly succeeded; the percussion section and the strings stood out, as they explored the heightened tension and excitement of this music. I'd like to hear the piece again on a recording, but not when I'm trying to relax.

If Tower's piece riveted, Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" Suite soothed. Conductor Carl Topilow took over the baton and led a somewhat smoother and more assured orchestra through a credible rendition of this remarkably familiar score. Indeed, I was humming it to myself -- not out loud, of course. The rural serenity and splendor of Copland's music contrasted strongly with Tower's angst.

In the second part of the program, Topilow, a remarkable clarinetist and founder of the Cleveland Pops, let loose. He launched the orchestra into a rousing rendition of "Hoedown" from Copland's "Rodeo." (Since those beef commercials, I can't listen to "Rodeo" without salivating.) Then Topilow started talking and playing -- he added warmth and humor to the evening. He soloed in selections from John Williams' scores for "Schindler's List" and "The Terminal," and he wrapped up the evening with a showy, expressive and winning interpretation of songs from "Porgy and Bess." But the highlight of the second half, contemporary composer Russell Peck's "Signs of Life II," allowed Topilow and the orchestra to take us playfully through many different emotions.

An encore? Of course -- Topilow nearly had the hall dancing to the bar theme from "Star Wars." I hope the concert will encourage the orchestra to perform even more contemporary music.

Music made in America
Chamber orchestra gets to play composer's brand-new work

Published in the Reno-Gazette Journal 10/19/05
By Forrest Hartman

Thanks to a commission with more than 60 built-in performances, Joan Tower is about to become the most-played living American composer of 2005-2006. She isn't taking the honor lightly.

"It's a huge burden," she said by telephone. "The piece has to have some strength and something going for it. Otherwise, it's downhill. It (would be) like sending a product around that's been already marketed in 50 states and the product's not good. It's a terrific burden."

Tower is bringing her piece, "Made in America," to Reno this weekend, where it will be the centerpiece of the Reno Chamber Orchestra's Saturday and Sunday concerts. "America" was commissioned as part of the Ford Made in America program, which pooled the resources of 65 small-budget orchestras, allowing them to contract with a composer who would have been beyond their financial reach.

"Certainly to commission a composer of this caliber with the costs of just that (writing) fee and then also the things that have gone along with it would have been impossible for an orchestra with our budget size," said Scott Faulkner, executive director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra. "Some people say, 'Well, why don't you just commission a lesser-known composer who will do it for less?' That's a good point, and we and other orchestras like ourselves do that, but a project like that wouldn't get in the national spotlight in the same sort of way."

By forming a consortium, the orchestras, supported by the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer, were able to commission a piece from Tower. They also received funding from the Ford Motor Co. Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts, helping not only with the composing fee but expenses related to the proper performance of "Made in America" and education programs surrounding it.

Tower, 67, studied piano at Bennington College and earned a doctorate in music from Columbia University. Initially, she made her name as a pianist, co-founding and playing with the Da Capo Chamber Players in New York. Although she began composing in the 1960s, she didn't gain much acclaim in that regard until the 1970s. In 1972, she took a teaching position with Bard College in New York, where she is still the Asher Edelman professor of music.

As a child, Tower spent a number of years in Bolivia; the contrast between a developing country like Bolivia and her experience there influenced her approach to "Made in America."

"Where I was in Bolivia, there was a lot of poverty and not your basic amenities, like running hot water and blankets and things like that," Tower said. "Also, there was no chance of moving up in class."

Those experiences made Tower appreciate the United States all the more, she said. While working on the commission, she said, her childhood experiences came to mind, and the tune from "America the Beautiful" kept running through her head.

"I started thinking, 'Maybe I'll use that tune in my piece,'" she said. "The whole piece is based on that tune, and sometimes it's quite obvious and sometimes it's not obvious at all. It floats in and out of this very tonal, consonant kind of landscape, which the tune inhabits, and into this other music, which is more my music. That's basically what the piece is about."

Many people try to find political commentary in "Made in America," but she didn't intend any, Tower said.

"I've been interviewed a lot since this started, and people keep bringing up the politics and I say, 'Well, music doesn't lend itself to politics too well unless there are words,'"‰" she said. "Everybody's going to bring to it what they want politically, if they do at all."

"Made in America" received its world premiere Oct. 2 with the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra in New York. Since then, it's been played twice, and Tower said the reaction has been positive.

"I've gotten two standing ovations out of three, which is pretty good," she said. "I've gotten terrific response to this piece and I'm happy so far."

Tower said it's always interesting to see the way a new composition is greeted because -- despite decades of experience -- she isn't able to predict which works will be winners.

"Every piece is like a child," she said. "You know, you have some children who are kind of boring and you have children who are kind of delinquents. Then you have stars. And I have enough children out there -- my pieces -- that they fill all those categories. So, the next one coming up, it's always, 'Well, which one is this going to be?'"‰"

In analyzing the success of a work, Tower said she looks first to herself, then to musicians and their audiences.

"I worry about what the players think," she said. "What they are getting from the page is extremely important to me. If they're not getting anything, I haven't done my job."

She takes the opinions of professional music critics a bit more lightly.

"The trouble with the critics is that they have this voice that's called the newspaper," she said. "It puts a lot of leverage in their hands to bias people, and I'm not always so sure that they're owed that leverage. Some of them are and some of them aren't."

No matter how "Made in America" is received, the commission project itself is noteworthy.

"As far as we know, this is the largest consortium of orchestras ever assembled to commission a composer," said Jesse Rosen, American Symphony Orchestra League vice president and chief program officer. "Introducing new music to the public poses challenges and, over the years, there's been a growing body of practice around introducing new work well, so that the public has a positive experience."

One of the orchestra league's responsibilities was fostering communication between the orchestras and Tower, so that her piece will be performed as well as possible, Rosen said.

"With the standard orchestral repertoire, there's a performance tradition, and musicians and conductors learn it as part of their training," he said. "So, when they approach the preparation of a piece of standard repertoire they come with a whole background of both a combination of technical preparation as well as more static outlook toward the work and a sense of understanding what it's about. With new music, you have to invent all of that, and it requires, often, a kind of different way of preparing a performance."

The chamber orchestra will be able to go directly to the source for interpretation of "Made in America," as Tower herself will conduct the piece. She said she's been conducting about four years, but doesn't consider herself very experienced.

"I love to conduct," she said. "When I was growing up, women conductors were not to be seen on the horizon. "» I would have probably been a fairly good conductor, but I started so late and I don't have the time."

But, she said, conducting her own work is no problem.

"I can do my own music decently," she said. "I love to do it when I can."