This summer, Christopher Stark, assistant professor of music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, presented two world-premiere compositions at major venues for contemporary classical music.
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The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s New Music Group—with generous support from Pacific Harmony Foundation—commissioned Stark’s “Cascade” as part of its signature Green Umbrella series. The piece, which is intended to evoke a walk in the Cascade Mountains, debuted June 1 under the baton of celebrated conductor John Adams. “The intensity builds,” writes the San Francisco Classical Voice, “until the entire auditorium felt like it was immersed in an all-out cloudburst.”
Also debuting June 1 was Stark’s micro-opera “From the Field,” commissioned by San Francisco’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Inspired by Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange, who documented the lives of migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl, the piece features libretto by Stark’s sister, Megan, associate professor at the University of Montana.