Palos Heights is among five U.S. towns where the new composition “Kiskadee” is being performed.
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s Sierra, Gershwin & Tchaikovsky concert on Feb. 24 at Trinity Christian College’s Ozinga Chapel features the piece by Arlene Sierra, a 2022 Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commission recipient.
“The Virginia Toulmin Foundation has worked with the League of American Orchestras and the American Composers Orchestra to commission women composers to write new works that are premiered and performed around the country,” said the London-based Sierra.
“The program addresses two longstanding problems in classical music: 1. That women currently make up about 10 percent of composers whose work is performed and 2. That newly commissioned works rarely have second or further performances after their premieres.”
Detroit Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kevin John Edusei premiered “Kiskadee” in October 2023.
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and music director Matthew Kraemer performed the piece in January.
“Thanks to the Toulmin program, my work ‘Kiskadee’ is having multiple performances with the Detroit, Louisiana, Illinois, Wheeling and Dallas symphonies over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons,” said Sierra, who was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best classical contemporary composition for “Moler.”
“This is my first time working with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, who applied to be part of the current tour of new Toulmin-commissioned pieces.
“Several of my recent pieces utilize birdsong and it is the call of the kiskadee that opens this piece as a kind of fanfare. I wanted to write something with a lot of energy that shows off what a good orchestra can do while making a strong start to a full program of music.”
The concert conducted by Stilian Kirov also includes George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” featuring world-renowned pianist Sean Chen and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy.
“As a composer of new music, I always like to have my work performed alongside standard orchestral repertoire. The combination of different eras of classical music with a new piece gives a great sense of where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Sierra said.
“I enjoyed playing Gershwin’s ‘Three Preludes’ as a young pianist and have always appreciated his work as an American composer pushing the boundaries of his time. Tchaikovsky, too, was a great innovator. Though of the Romantic period, his orchestration, in particular, never fails to impress and delight.”
“Kiskadee” follows “Bird Symphony” (2021)” and “Birds and Insects, Book 3” (2023) by Sierra, who is also a professor of music composition at Cardiff University.
“Part of a larger series of pieces based on ideas from the natural world, the mechanics and processes of nature are the basis for my compositional approach, rather than offering a simple reflection or meditation,” said Sierra, who first started composing through the medium of electronic music.
“The work employs a transcription of the kiskadee’s call as well as transcriptions of sounds from its environment.”
Sierra, who has guest lectured at DePaul University and will do the same at The University of Chicago, and Chen host a free 6:30 p.m. preconcert lecture.
VanderCook College of Music gives a free 7 p.m. performance in the Grand Lobby.
Sierra, Gershwin & Tchaikovsky
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24
Where: Trinity Christian College’s Ozinga Chapel, 6601 W. College Drive, Palos Heights
Tickets: $15-$84; $37 We Pick (in advance only)
Information: 708-481-7774; ipomusic.org
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
