Osmo Vanska Conducts 'Future Classics' Concert Series of New Emerging Composers January 29

Osmo Vanska will conduct the Minnesota Orchestra in the eighth annual Future Classics Concert Series. The concert will feature seven of the top emerging composers of today. The concert will take place Friday January 29th at 8 PM at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. Tickets range from $20 to $40 dollars and the show will be hosted by former Portland, Oregon alum Fred Child. All seven composers will be present to introduce their work.

Kevin Smith, Minnesota Orchestra president and CEO, said this about the concert in the group's press release, "The Institute offers emerging composers an abundance of opportunities with a major Orchestra and it offers our audiences a chance to hear the newest music being created in the classical world today," The top seven composers left have studied, the press release tells us, in some of the top schools in the nation.

The seven, according to the press release, describe their music this way, "Kirsten Broberg's Celestial Dawning, the final work in a cycle inspired by nature, is an energy-filled piece depicting the formative moments of a planet in the solar system. Matthew Browne's Barnstorming Season is a polystylistic work inspired by the dangerous and exciting maneuvers in air shows of the 1920s. Joshua Cerdenia, a native of the Philippines, presents Mayagon, an emotional piece based on the tale of a beautiful maiden in Filipino mythology. Emily Cooley describes her Scroll of the Air as "a meditation on creativity and flight" which is at some moments industrial and at others serene. Nick DiBerardino's Asphodel reflects on Homer's The Odyssey and ponders notions of the afterlife. Michael Gilbertson's Sinfonia After Vivaldi, of which movements III and IV are performed at this concert, was inspired by motives and themes from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. In Anthony Vine's Transmission, the musicians traverse the extremes of their instruments and play along with electronic sounds in a work."

It is an exciting chance to see tomorrow's potential geniuses up close and early in their ascent up the ladder of prestige. Conducter Vanska expanded the program to include a week long look at the composers of tomorrow. Now, in its tenth year, the program has been an unbridled success and given a voice to the future.