Anthony Constantino will have the world premiere of his piece “Awakenings” this Friday.
The final concert of the St. Matthew’s Music Guild season will be held Friday, June 3 at 8 p.m. and feature a world premiere, “Awakenings,” by Anthony Constantino.
The piece was initially commissioned by the Guild in 2019 and meant to celebrate the return to normalcy following Covid. Unfortunately, the work’s premiere was delayed until June 2022.
Constantino was born in 1995 and raised in Tucson. He received a commission when he was 16 from Carnegie Hall for their Carmina Burana Choral Project, which premiered in 2012.
In 2014 he was named YoungArts Composition Competition Winner out of more than 11,000 applicants. He has been recognized by the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and the Music Teachers National Association.
Constantino, who received his bachelor degree from Manhattan School of Music and his doctorate from UCLA, has been widely praised for music in a variety of styles including chamber music, vocal, and eletro-acoustic. Most recently, he scored “Body/Site/Seen” a piece of performance art combining dance and live video to explore the idea perspective. It was performed at the Broad Art Center.
In addition to Constantino’s piece, the Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s, under the direction of Dwayne S. Milburn, will perform the music of Stravinsky and Mozart.
Igor Stravinsky composed his Concerto in E-flat “Dumbarton Oaks” in 1938 on a commission from Robert and Mildred Bliss whose famous estate in Washington, D.C. was known as “Dumbarton Oaks.” The work was commissioned in celebration of the couple’s thirtieth wedding anniversary and is one of two pieces Stravinsky intended as chamber concertos. The commission was arranged by the great French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger who conducted a private premiere in the Dumbarton Oaks’ music room. Stravinsky later conducted the public premiere in Paris in 1938.
Mozart’s Mass in C major (“Credo”) was composed in 1776 for Salzburg Cathedral. Although Mozart was becoming increasingly unhappy with his position as violinist in the court of Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, the mass is full of rhythmic verve and ingratiating melodies. It is scored for four soloists, chorus and chamber orchestra.
The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s will be joined by the choir and soloists of St. Matthew’s Parish.
“Liner Notes with Tom Neenan” – a pre-concert discussion of the evening’s program, begins at 7:10 p.m. in the church, 1031 Bienveneda Avenue, and is free and open to the public.
Tickets are available at MusicGuildOnline.org. Phone: (310) 573-7422. Masks are encouraged but not required for all audience members. All audience members must show proof of having been fully vaccinated.