April 08, 2008
On May 4 and 6, 2008, the California Symphony under Music Director Barry Jekowsky will present the world premiere of Music From Underground Spaces by Mason Bates, its 2007 – 2010 Young American Composer-in-Residence who is quickly emerging as one of Americas leading composers. The occasion marks the debut of the first of three major works commissioned by the California Symphony from the 31-year-old Oakland resident, who will also perform live electronica in the orchestra’s percussion section at the upcoming May concerts.
Most recently, Bates acclaimed Liquid Interface received its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on February 7 and world premiere at the Kennedy Center last year, commissioned and performed on both occasions by the National Symphony under Music Director Leonard Slatkin. Calling it “cleverly constructed,” the New York Times noted that the “colorful four-movement tone poem, which uses a vast orchestra and electronics to evoke water in both soothing and menacing forms…. was like wandering down a road with a string quartet playing on one side and a D.J. spinning on the other.”
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