IMMIGRANT COMPOSERS

CELEBRATING IMMIGRANT COMPOSERS

Since its inception, America has been a land of new beginnings, new opportunities, and new ideas. As Finnish conductor-composer Esa-Pekka Salonen has said, moving to California made him realize that “for the first time in my life, free to do whatever [he] wanted in terms of [his] own work.”

America has provided opportunities for immigrants. And immigrants have provided America with their unique gifts. Among these immigrants have been the performers and composers who have gifted our nation with its vibrant musical identity.

America provided educational and growth opportunities for those like Anna Thorvaldsdottir, who completed her graduate studies at UC San Diego in 2011 and went on to win recognition from the likes of New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center. Anna Clyne and Chen Yi also came to America as students, and their music has now been embraced by orchestras across America and the world.

Others created a life straddling two cultures. Reinaldo Moya’s Siempre lunes, siempre marzo may tell stories from his South American homeland, but it was composed in New York and premiered in New Jersey. Academy Award-winner for Best Original Music Score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tan Dun still draws much of his inspiration from his childhood in a small Chinese village. “I spend so much of my time to recompose this kind of memory,” he says. In the Water Concerto, “I transpose those memories...into my orchestrations.”

But many others left their homes behind to seek refuge in a foreign land. Bartók fled Nazi Europe and found success in America late in his life when Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered his ever-popular Concerto for Orchestra. Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances – the only piece he completed in his new home - includes the distinctively American and jazzy sound of the saxophone.

Never monolithic and constantly evolving, our culture has always derived its richness from a constant influx of new people bringing new ideas which grow and blend to produce something new and uniquely American. This season, the San Diego Symphony highlights some of the voices that have blended together in the American chorus. They came from all corners of the globe, but each of them became, in their own way, an essential part of America.

12 (619) 235-0804 | sandiegosymphony.org LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM ANNA CLYNE

FRI APR 9, 8PM | SAT APR 10, 8PM | SUN APR 11, 2PM Abstractions

REYK JAVÍK, ICELAND ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR

FRI JAN 15, 8PM | SUN JAN 17, 2PM Metacosmos

SÂNNICOLAU MARE, ROMANIA BARTÓK

FRI MAR 12, 8PM | SAT MAR 13, 8PM Concerto for Orchestra

GUANGZHOU, CHINA CHEN YI

FRI FEB 26, 8PM | SAT FEB 27, 8PM | SUN FEB 28, 2PM Ge xu (Antiphony)

HELSINKI, FINLAND ESA-PEKKA SALONEN

FRI NOV 13, 8PM | SAT NOV 14, 8PM | SUN NOV 15, 2PM Nyx

CARACAS, VENEZUELA REINALDO MOYA

FRI OCT 9, 8PM | SAT OCT 10, 8PM | SUN OCT 11, 2PM Siempre lunes, siempre marzo (Always Monday, Always March)

SEMYONOVO, RUSSIA RACHMANINOFF

FRI FEB 5, 8PM | SUN FEB 7, 1PM Symphony No. 2 FRI APR 9, 8PM | SAT APR 10, 8PM SUN APR 11, 2PM Symphonic Dances

CHANGSHA, CHINA TAN DUN