Spotlight on...John Adams

We compare and contrast the life of John Adams with that of Igor Stravinsky in our previous blog post, ahead of our concert on Thursday night at Cadogan Hall.

Name       
John Coolidge Adams

Age       
65

Nationality   
American   

Background   
His father taught him how to play the clarinet, and he was a clarinetist in community ensembles as a young boy. He began composing at the age of ten with his music first performed publically when he was 14 years old. Studied at Harvard University where he was awarded two degrees. He received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his orchestral work, On the Transmigration of Souls, a memorial to the September 11 attacks.

Johnadams_web_credit_margaret_mitchell
Image: Margaret Mitchell

Breakthrough Moment
Acknowledged for bringing contemporary history to the opera house with his post-modern operatic works Nixon in China (1987), The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) and Doctor Atomic (2005). A recent survey shows him to be the most frequently performed living American composer of orchestral music.

CLS performance
Gnarly Buttons
is his concerto for clarinet and small orchestra, written for and premiered by our Principal Conductor Michael Collins, and featuring the banjo, mandolin and guitar! Grand Pianola Music was inspired by a dream in which he found himself driving down Interstate 5, being approached by two of the world's longest Steinways! It unusually features two pianos and three female voices sing a wordless harmony.

Stravinsky & John Adams
Thursday 18 October, 7.30pm
Cadogan Hall, London

Stravinsky Octet
John Adams Gnarly Buttons
John Adams Grand Pianola Music

Tickets from £15
Box Office: 020 7730 4500/cadoganhall.com

 

 

Spotlight on...Igor Stravinsky

Ahead of our concert on Thursday night at Cadogan Hall, we take a quick look at the life of one of the twentieth century's most influential composers: Igor Stravinsky.

Name
Igor Feodorovich Stravinsky

Age    
130 (if still alive!)

Nationality   
Russian by birth, then became a Swiss resident, took French citizenship in 1934, before becoming a naturalised United States citizen in 1945.   

Background   
Third son of Feodor Stravinsky, one of the principal basses at the Maryinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. Studied law at university before concentrating on music fulltime.Studied informally with Russian composer and member of The Five, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsadov, for three years.  

Stravinsky_picasso

Breakthrough Moment
The Firebird, a ballet, premiered in Paris in 1910 that first brought him to international prominence. His third ballet The Rite of Spring is often seen as one of the major landmarks in classical music history, as it is often cited as the beginning of modernism and established Stravinsky as the most radical composer of his age.

City of London Sinfonia Performance
His Octet is widely seen as one of the most influential pieces of chamber music. It is scored unusually for woodwind and brass instruments and is regarded as marking the start of Stravinsky's neoclassicsm compositions. American composer Aaron Copland who attended the premiere, later commented “No one could possibly have foreseen . . . that the Octet was destined to influence composers all over the world.”

Stravinsky & John Adams
Thursday 18 October, 7.30pm
Cadogan Hall, London

Stravinsky       Octet
John Adams    Gnarly Buttons
John Adams    Grand Pianola Music

Michael Colllins conductor/clarinet

Tickets from £15
Box Office: 020 7730 4500/
cadoganhall.com

New Online Brochure

Our new London concerts brochure which lists all City of London Sinfonia concerts from September 2012 to February 2013 is now ready.

Highlights for the next sixth months include a return to Village Underground in Shoreditch for a second CLoSer series, a programme of Stravinsky and John Adams with our Principal Conductor Michael Collins taking centre stage at Cadogan Hall, and a reunion with Polyphony for a performance of Mozart’s Requiem at St John’s Smith Square, conducted by our Artistic Director Stephen Layton.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming concerts!

The Big Give Christmas Challenge

Earlier this month, pupils from three primary schools in Tower Hamlets took part in a very magical project with our musicians and workshop leader Claire Bloor. October and November were full of magic for the Education team with our Lullaby series followed by our sell-out Crash Bang Wallop! concert at Cadogan Hall and we were so pleased that alongside these projects, we were able to develop a bespoke project for 150 Year 1 and 2 pupils from across Tower Hamlets; the starting point of a new and exciting programme of work in the Borough.

In the spring we met with THAMES, the Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service to explore possibilities of developing work together. THAMES works with schools across Tower Hamlets, providing instrumental music teachers and running ensembles but also have a very strong history of exciting, effective partnerships. They work with a wide range of professional partners and we are proud to be one of them!

The concert was wonderful, something the children would never have been able to experience without you.
Teacher, Thomas Buxton Primary School

Our first project in October saw a special schools performance of our Magic themed show which included arrangements of works such as Dukas Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute. Around this, we ran a series of workshops with four classes, introducing children to the repertoire and instruments of the Orchestra. Alongside workshop leader, Claire Bloor, the children also wrote their own lyrics to a song about a magical owl which was performed with the Orchestra at the concert. 

022_small_halesworth_concert_p_coghlin
Image: Paul Coghlin

This pilot project has exceeded our expectations and we now plan to visit eight more primary schools in Tower Hamlets, with a series of bespoke schools concerts and workshops, introducing a further 300 children and their teachers to the Orchestra.  In order to make this important work happen we are taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge (5-9 December), through which we need to raise £25,000 in order to enable this transformational work to happen. 

Visit our Big Give page to find out more and how to get involved.

Big Give Christmas Challenge
5 - 9 Dec 2011