Thursday, December 20, 2007

UNT Regents Professor’s commissioned trombone piece to be performed by Houston Symphony Orchestra

By Pegasus News wire

The Houston Symphony Orchestra (HSO) has commissioned and will perform a new composition called Solstice for Trombone and Orchestra by University of North Texas Regents Professor of Music Cindy McTee. The performances will occur on Jan. 10, 12 and 13 (go here for times, locale and ticket purchase details) in Houston. (C'mon - it's only a five-hour drive from Denton, right?)

Cindy McTee: composer, professor, contemplator of shadows

The work was designed to highlight the talents of HSO trombonist Allen Barnhill. Composed during the summer of 2007 around the actual solstice, Solstice... incorporates three movements (without pause between the first and second, it says here) and explores the ways in which shadow might be expressed through the agency of music. (Sounds intriguing, no?) This press release waxes downright poetic, stating: "...Solstice for Trombone and Orchestra embodies a conjunction between tension and release, subjectivity and objectivity, light and shadow," and goes on to quote Jung, for cripe's sake.

Rounding out the program will be Mozart's Linz Symphony, Haydn's Symphony No. 83 (one of my favorite numbers) and Mahler's Rückert Lieder: songs for voice and orchestra.

Professor McTee is no stranger to commissioned works: she's previously been tasked compositionally by the symphony orchestras of Amarillo, Dallas and Houston, along with the American Guild of Organists, the Barlow Endowment, Bands of America and the College Band Directors National Association. The list of those organizations which have performed her work is even more extensive. McTee has taught at UNT since 1984.

posted by JM

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• Colleges & Universities > University of North Texas
• Arts > Fine Arts > Classical Music

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