In with the New

By Bekah Sandy

The most famous art scandal of all time started with an orchestral commission.

Recounted so often as to reach mythical status, the story surrounding the debut of Igor Stravinsky’s avant-garde ballet score, The Rite of Spring, endures. After all, what better testament to music’s power than a composition so potent it transformed a crowd of Parisian sophisticates into a raucous mob?

“Now that was a good premiere,” said Raff Wilson of the 1913 opening-turned-riot. Not that the Seattle Symphony’s Vice President of Artistic Planning wants Benaroya Hall concert attendees to recreate that notorious night and its purported fistfights and 40 or so arrests. But he does aspire for audiences to be affected. “People want to hear works that evoke strong feelings. They want to hear flavors that are new. They want to hear pieces that reflect the mood of the time.”

Such is one of the reasons that Wilson and his colleagues remain so dedicated to commissioning and premiering new works for the community. In the 2021–2022 season alone, the organization’s calendar includes upwards of nine Seattle Symphony co-commissions, four world premieres and six U.S. premieres.

“We certainly have an active commissioning program and a great track record for seeking and premiering new voices,” Wilson said.

This season proves no exception, with new works from such artists as Tan Dun, Angélica Negrón and Joel Thompson, among others. In November, renowned harpist and composer Hannah Lash premiered a Seattle Symphony co-commissioned double harp concerto, The Peril of Dreams, which she performed alongside the orchestra’s own Principal Harp, Valerie Muzzolini.

“Premiering a new piece is something quite different,” Muzzolini said. “It’s just like jumping into water. The water is going to be cold at first, and you’re the one who must warm it up a little. Commissioning is such an important part of our mission, to show that you can’t have classical music without contemporary music. Otherwise, it’d be something like stopping the painters at Monet. Art is always evolving, always changing, always growing, in any kind of direction, and that’s the beauty of it.”

While it might seem natural to musicians to pursue genres both next and new, Muzzolini and Wilson recognize the Symphony’s good fortune in serving a community hungry for forward-looking programming.

“Seattle people have open ears and are interested in hearing new music. There’s an appetite there,” Wilson said. “I think [the Seattle Symphony’s] commitment to commissions, in a way, reflects the city. Commissioning is a creation of new things, and it’s an open-mindedness. We have that in Seattle, in the technological field, such as with the world’s most advanced airplane manufacturer, Boeing. And we have that in Seattle in that there’s still this spirit of being the frontier, of being on the edge of possibility.”

Community support enables the Symphony to pursue opportunities like undertaking multi-year commission projects, and retaining a Composer in Residence; this season it's Reena Esmail. In September, The Seattle Times lauded Esmail’s world premiere of her Seattle Symphony co-commissioned work, RE|Member, as “evocative, imaginative and surprisingly powerful.” In February, the orchestra will kick off a two-program reflection of famed Finnish composer Sibelius beginning with Symphony No. 1 alongside a responding composition by Ellen Reid, commissioned by the Seattle Symphony. The process will be repeated in April with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 and composer Angélica Negrón.

Wilson says pairing an established work with a direct response by a current voice allows listeners to balance between the risk and reward associated with premieres.

“Yes, there is the chance when approaching something new that it might not be your cup of tea. That’s the risk of a premiere, whereas there’s something undeniably comforting about what I’d call our heartland repertoire, the classics that everyone knows and can walk into the Hall humming before the concert,” Wilson said. “But the familiarity of those pieces is such that it makes having something that’s a real unknown quality to be so nourishing. On the flip side, there is a buzz, a bit of adrenaline running as you go into a premiere. That’s part of the reward. Whatever we commission, we want it to be compelling. It has to be great music to be on our stage.”

The implication, of course, is that of the cliché, “Even Beethoven was new once.” In commissions, symphonies can encompass and amplify more voices and narratives. Wilson points to Paul Chihara. This month, the locally born composer will premiere a Seattle Symphony commission reflecting on his time in a Japanese internment camp. This work will be paired alongside that of another Seattle-born artist and composer, Kaoru Ishibashi’s Improvisations on EO9066, in a concert honoring the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which called for the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

“One of the interesting things about Seattle is not just that it has an audience for new voices, but that it also contains a lot of compelling narratives and diverse voices,” Wilson said. And in each fresh perspective lies the potential for the next great composer. “It’s a new time, a good time for composers. We may well be in a golden age, actually. There are so many different voices out there now. It’s an expansive moment.”

The premiere performances of The Peril of Dreams were generously underwritten by The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Living Music Program.

Hannah Lash's The Peril of Dreams was commissioned by the Seattle Symphony with the support of Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.

Hannah Lash's performances were generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.

Reena Esmail's residency is generously supported by Parul and Gary Houlahan.

Kishi Bashi's performances are generously sponsored by Marco Argenti.

The Seattle Symphony’s New Music WORKS initiative is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.