New Music Festival 2023–Composers Orchestra

BENJAMIN LAHAM (B.M. '25): Racing Mind: Movement for Orchestra

GRIG BALASANYAN (B.M. '26): Purgatorio

LAUREN GREENBERG (B.M. '23): Bonds of Cosmic Origins

PRANAV YAGNARAMAN (B.M. '24): Évocations
I. Parfums de La Forêt

RORY WILSON (M.M. '24): Sailor Song (“Spanish Ladies”)

ZEXUAN DING (M.M. '23): Weaving Droplets

This evening's program will feature world premieres for orchestra, composed by Boston Conservatory's composition students and performed under the direction of Vimbayi Kaziboni, assistant professor of orchestral studies and contemporary music.

LAUREN GREENBERG (B.M. '23): Bonds of Cosmic Origins
This composition is dedicated to those who have brought forth the bonds from cosmic places.

PRANAV YAGNARAMAN (B.M. '24): Évocations This piece was composed in tribute to Claude Debussy.

RORY WILSON (M.M. '24): Sailor Song (“Spanish Ladies”)
Sailor Song is a piece for orchestra based on the 18th-century English folk song "Spanish Ladies." Traditionally sung at sea by sailors who were heading back to England (with the opening line "Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies") the tune has appeared in broadsheets and collections of folk songs and sea shanties since the 1820s. The melody, first quoted in this piece in the cellos and basses, has appeared in both minor and major forms throughout the song's publication history, with the major version often derided as a bastardized and less beautiful form of its minor counterpart. Both tonalities are utilized in this piece. I first came across "Spanish Ladies" in a book I bought on a whim at a used bookstore in England, The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Picked up cheaply, I figured it may have something in it to use as the basis for a larger composition one day. Sure enough, when looking for orchestral inspiration, "Spanish Ladies" caught my eye. The melody is quoted in various forms throughout, with the rest of the musical material meant to represent the seas, moving from calm to stormy to everything in between.

ZEXUAN DING (M.M. '23): Weaving Droplets
Throughout Weaving Droplets, I was inspired by the sounds from rain drums. I attempt to explore the shape and sound of droplets when they land on the drum, and to express the atmosphere of rain drums played in the natural environment through orchestra gestures and different combinations of timbre, as well as instrument technique and texture.

Boston Conservatory at Berklee's New Music Festival is an annual celebration of innovative contemporary classical works, featuring world-class compositional voices of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as emerging new composers. The festival is artistically directed by Mischa Salkind-Pearl.

Senior Manager of Concert Services – Luis Herrera 
Concert Production Coordinator – Matthew Carey
Concert Production Manager – Kendall Floyd
Manager of Performance Technology – Wes Fowler
Performance Technology Technicians – Sara Pagiaro, Goran Daskalov