During a recent rehearsal of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, music director Allen Tinkham asked musicians to switch gears from Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 to “the Higdon” — as in, a piece by the prolific contemporary composer Jennifer Higdon.
“Which one?” a wind player called back.
That a youth ensemble concert would play more than one piece by Higdon, a Pulitzer Prize and multi-Grammy winner, is unusual, with nothing to say of playing new work at all. But Higdon’s “Time Abounds,” which premieres on Sunday, is one of a whopping 16 new works commissioned by the CYSO and its family of ensembles in recent years, a push that began in its 75th anniversary season in 2021.
Now, the organization is looking ahead to 80. The CYSO’s premier ensemble will return to Lollapalooza this summer after becoming the first orchestra in the festival’s history to headline its own set. Though full season programming is still under wraps, more premieres are on the docket, including one by Marcus Norris for the Philharmonic Orchestra and another by Soon Hee Newbold for Overture Strings, its introductory string orchestra.
Tinkham and CYSO executive director Jennie Oh Brown spoke to the Tribune about the commissioning initiative. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Q: How much of Higdon’s music has the CYSO performed, and how does “Time Abounds” slot into some of those other scores?
A: Tinkham: I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Higdon’s music. In fact, I’m conducting four of her pieces with various CYSO ensembles this year, and the Symphony Orchestra has already performed Higdon’s “Machine.” They’ll be replaying that on Sunday, along with “Time Abounds.” They also did “blue cathedral” in the fall, and her “Celebration Fanfare” at our gala.
She definitely did not dumb (“Time Abounds”) down because it’s young people. It’s really a tour de force for the entire orchestra, in three movements. The second movement includes solos for all of the principal winds, all of the principal strings — it’s a very similar language that she used in the solo writing of “blue cathedral” (a widely played work Higdon wrote in 2000).
The first and last movements are both groove pieces, in one tempo beginning to end. She said one of the reasons she wanted to write like this for the CYSO is because they’re young people, and they’re so energetic. The kids are loving it.
The first piece of the initiative was a brand new piece for the Symphony Orchestra by Bernard Rands, someone I’d always wanted to commission. We were thrilled to have played that before we lost him. (Rands died in March of this year.) That piece was similarly inspired by young people and their youthful energy.
Q: Commissioning so much new music is rare in the youth ensemble world. Did this initiative require a special fundraising effort?
A: Brown: We were very fortunate to have the support of (philanthropist and former Chicago Symphony chair) Helen Zell. Not only is it providing these great opportunities for a piece like “Time Abounds,” but it’s also addressing the need for new compositions, especially from diverse composers, at the educational level. Youth orchestras can be a little bit more nimble and pretty much program whatever they think the students should learn. Allen has taken full advantage of that.
For example, last night, the Concert Orchestra premiered (CYSO composition instructor) Eric Malmquist’s “Hard Times.” Eric interviewed the entire Concert Orchestra about what made them anxious. And through those conversations, he created this piece with aleatoric (spontaneous) moments that gave the kids choices of five different excerpts, some of which were common audition excerpts. Within those aleatoric moments, he gave the kids agency to express their anxiety.
Then, the day before, there was a premiere by Wang Lu, a premiere by Clarice Assad, and a third premiere by Allison Loggins-Hull. In one weekend, we had four major premieres by incredible composers.
Q: The young people coming of age in your programs have been through a lot — they’re among those who had their lives and schooling upended by COVID. Working with them daily, what do you think is important to know about young people today?
A: Tinkham: You see negative things about young people in contemporary media a lot — either they’re not trying, or they’re focused on themselves. The truth is that these young people we see at CYSO are just as extraordinary as they’ve always been. The most difficult thing about the pandemic for musicians was you couldn’t be in the same room; you couldn’t take a breath together; you couldn’t make a phrase together. That’s really what ensemble music is about.
A: Brown: For young people today, the pandemic was just the beginning. All that they’re witnessing, all that they’re enduring, the way that the culture has changed even within technology, with social media, AI, and everything else. … The level of pressure that they’re experiencing is completely unprecedented.
To me, Eric’s piece exemplified so much of what CYSO is about: how we use music to not only express these feelings, but how to do it together through chaos.
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
The Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Orchestra perform their spring concert, featuring the premiere of “Time Abounds,” at 7:30 p.m. May 17 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., with a pre-concert talk with composer Jennifer Higdon at 6:15 p.m. Free for children, tickets $20-$50 for adults; box office and more information at cyso.org.
