Orchestra of St. Luke’s continues OSLive Streaming with “Composers of Note” series (Nov 9 – 30)

The Orchestra of St. Luke’s continues its OSLive Streaming series with “Composers of Note,” presented by the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center. For the free four-concert series, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble performs chamber classics and works by living composers, with a focus on some of those previously championed in OSL’s “Music in Color” programming initiative. The four concerts will stream live on Monday evenings in November from the storied New York synagogue.

The series opens with “Musical Revolutionaries,” grouping Beethoven’s C-major String Quintet, nicknamed “Der Sturm” (The Storm), with Matthew Evan Taylor’s Dawn of a New Day and Anjna Swaminathan’s Duplicity (Nov 9). Representing something of the breadth and diversity of contemporary American composition, the works by Taylor and Swaminathan were co-commissioned by OSL and the Gabriel Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, and premiered as part of the orchestra’s 2018-19 “Music in Color” Five Borough Tour. So too was Christine Delphine Hedden’s Cuimhne, now heard in “Connections Across Time and Space” (Nov 16) alongside the First String Quintet by Brahms and Second String Quartet by Florence Price, the first African-American woman to have a work performed by a major U.S. orchestra. Next, “Bologne + Mozart” showcases two Classical masters, with the sole Clarinet Quintet by Mozart and Fourth String Quartet by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was born into slavery in 18th-century Guadeloupe and went on to become one of the leading musicians of Revolutionary Paris (Nov 23). The series concludes with “The Cello in Motion,” juxtaposing Schubert’s transcendent String Quintet in C with Ride Through for solo cello by Eleanor Alberga, the Jamaican-born composer whose high-profile commissions include works for London’s BBC Proms and the Royal Opera (Nov 30).

Long known and loved as New York’s “hometown band” (New York Times), OSL has demonstrated rare versatility and innovation during the pandemic by transitioning its annual “OSL Bach Festival” into the successful month-long and entirely digital “Bach at Home” festival; transitioning its education services from in-person to distance learning; piloting other digital initiatives; and creating this new, robust fall lineup.

OSLive Streaming: “Composers of Note”

St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble
Streaming live from Temple Emanu-El
Tickets are free, but registration is required. For more information, click here.

Mon, Nov 9 at 6:30pm EST
“Musical Revolutionaries”
MATTHEW EVAN TAYLOR: Dawn of a New Day (OSL co-commission)
ANJNA SWAMINATHAN: Duplicity (OSL co-commission)
BEETHOVEN: String Quintet, Op. 29

Mon, Nov 16 at 6:30pm EST
“Connections Across Time and Space”
CHRISTINE DELPHINE HEDDEN: Cuimhne (OSL co-commission)
FLORENCE PRICE: String Quartet No. 2
BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 1

Mon, Nov 23 at 6:30pm EST
“Bologne + Mozart”
CHEVALIER DE ST. GEORGES: String Quartet No. 4 in C minor
MOZART: Clarinet Quintet

Mon, Nov 30 at 6:30pm EST
“The Cello in Motion”
ELEANOR ALBERGA: Ride Through
SCHUBERT: String Quintet in C