Locced Down

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s 11th season will focus on concertos, pairing the orchestra with a wide array of local and international soloists. The season, announced today, offers BMOP’s customary mix of the cutting-edge and the merely modern, including no fewer than 10 world premieres.

Concerts begin on Nov. 2 with “Re-Inventions,” a program of keyboard concertos. Works by Michael Colgrass and David Rakowski (whose “Winged Contraption”

BMOP premiered last season) will get their first hearings. Joanne Kong will play both piano and harpsichord in the Colgrass. The concert also includes music by Elliott Schwartz and Anthony Davis, who will be the piano soloist in his “Wayang V.”

The 10th “Boston Connection” concert (Jan. 25) celebrates BMOP’s ongoing relationship with the New England Conservatory, featuring works from the annual BMOP/NEC composition and concerto competitions as well as new music by Martin Boykan and Ezra Sims.

A March 29 program includes a work for two violins and orchestra by BMOP’s composer-in-residence, Lisa Bielawa. The soloists are known for their adventurousness: Colin Jacobsen, who’s worked with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and Carla Kihlstedt, who plays in just about any genre you can imagine, including jazz and experimental rock. Also on the bill are premieres by Ken Ueno, Alejandro Rutty, and Derek Hurst. Ueno will be the soloist in his concerto for throat singer and orchestra. Hurst’s concerto was written for local new-music mavens the Firebird Ensemble, who’ll perform it. Rutty’s piece is a joint commission with the MATA Festival, a New York-based event for young composers cofounded in 1996 by Bielawa, Eleanor Sandresky, and Philip Glass. The program will be repeated at next year’s festival in Brooklyn (April 1).

The fourth and final concert (May 23) promises an intriguing take on contemporary Armenian music. The frame is provided by music of Alan Hovhaness, whose mysteriously beautiful works blend Eastern and Western elements in a deeply idiosyncratic way. Joining the Hovhaness will be a concerto for duduk (an Armenian woodwind) and orchestra by Vache Sharafyan. One additional piece, still to be announced, will feature the outstanding violist Kim Kashkashian who, like Hovhaness, is of Armenian descent.

All concerts will be under the direction of music director Gil Rose and will take place at Jordan Hall. Also back this season is BMOP’s innovative series of Club Concerts at Club Café’s Moonshine Room. Those programs will be announced later in the season but will include Bielawa’s ongoing series of “Synopses” for various solo instruments.

BMOP plans to record 10 works and release five new CDs during the season. Tickets go on sale Sept. 1. 617-363-0396, bmop.org

More Landmarks The Boston Landmarks Orchestra finishes its season of free concerts with two Hatch Shell events. Next Wednesday it reprises “The Journey of Phillis Wheatley,” a 2005 work that’s one of several BLO commissions of music for children. Wheatley, a slave, was the first African-American woman to publish a book in America. The piece, by Nkeiru Okoye, tells Wheatley’s story via music and narration in a style reminiscent of “Peter and the Wolf.” Joining it on the program is Copland’s “A Lincoln Portrait.”

A week later, the orchestra winds up its season with an interesting program of “Green Masterpieces.” It brings together Respighi’s suite “The Birds,” Hovhaness’s “And God Created Great Whales,” Handel’s “Water Music,” and Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony. 617-520-2200, land marksorchestra.org

Jeune Lune warm-up The American Repertory Theatre is collaborating with the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in a double bill of opera-plays — “Don Juan Giovanni” and “Figaro” — that start previews at the Loeb Drama Center next Friday. As a curtain raiser, members of Jeune Lune will offer a taste of the show, cabaret style, at the Beehive in the South End this Sunday. It’s an 8 p.m. show; no cover. 617-423-0069, beehive boston.com © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.Related articles on Boston.comMore:Globe Living/Arts stories

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 4:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.