Program 1: Classical and Neo-Classical: Prokofiev, Beethoven, Mozart, and Stacy Garrop Artist Profiles:

ROBERT SPANO, MUSIC DIRECTOR KEVIN JOHN EDUSEI, PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR KEITH CERNY, Ph.D., PRESIDENT AND CEO Jan. 6-7, 2023 Bass Performance Hall Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Dame Jane Glover, conductor Benjamin Baker, violin Stacy Garrop, visiting composer

CLASSICAL AND NEO-CLASSICAL:

Prokofiev, Beethoven, Mozart, and Stacy Garrop

PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25, “Classical Symphony” I. Allegro con brio II. Larghetto III. Gavotte: Non troppo allegro IV. Finale: Molto vivace BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Larghetto III. Rondo: Allegro Benjamin Baker, Violin

INTERMISSION

STACY GARROP Spectacle of Light MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 I. Molto allegro II. Andante III. Menuetto: Allegretto; Trio IV. Allegro assai

Video or audio recording of this performance is strictly prohibited. Patrons arriving late will be seated during the first convenient pause. Program and artists are subject to change.

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PROGRAM NOTES : SERGEI PROKOFIEV

SYMPHONY No. 1 in D MAJOR, Op. 25, “CLASSICAL SYMPHONY”

I. Allegro II. Larghetto III. Gavotte: Non troppo allegro IV. Finale: Vivace

DURATION: Around 14 minutes

PREMIERED: Petrograd, 1918

INSTRUMENTATION: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings

“It seemed to me that had Haydn lived to our day he would have retained his own style while accepting something of the new at the same time. That was the kind of symphony I wanted to write: a symphony in the classical style. And when I saw that my idea was beginning to work, I called it the Classical Symphony.”

— Sergei Prokofiev (Born 1891, Russian Empire; died 1953)

CLASSICAL MUSIC: While the term “classical” music typically refers to all Western art music, the classical period is more narrowly defined as stretching from about 1730-1820. The “classical” style harkens back to clarity of structural form and emphasizes clean melodic lines and consonant harmonies.

NEOCLASSICAL MUSIC: A 20th century trend by which composers once again sought to return to aesthetics associated with “classicism,” now with new harmonic and structural tricks and techniques.

FURTHER LISTENING:

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major Lieutenant Kijé (Suite) See also: Igor Stravinsky: Octet for Wind Instruments 10 | 2022/2023 SEASON

by Jeremy Reynolds

Prokofiev always did have a bit of a chip on his shoulder. His various diary entries regarding the “Classical Symphony” evidence a prideful insouciance, a gleeful anticipation at exasperating his professors at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with the work’s style. “When our classically inclined musicians and professors (to my mind faux-classical) hear this symphony, they will be bound to scream in protest at this new example of Prokofiev’s insolence,” he once scribbled. “Look how he will not let Mozart lie quiet in his grave but must come prodding at him with his grubby hands, contaminating the pure classical pearls with horrible Prokofievish dissonances.”

What makes the music sound “classical?” A variety of idioms leap to mind. Quick shifts in dynamics from very loud to very soft. An emphasis on clear melody and countermelody that balance against sparse textures. Clean articulation throughout, as each instrumental entrance punctures easily through the texture. And, compared to Prokofiev’s music generally, a stark lack of dissonance in favor of harmonic consonance.

The first movement opens with a burst of energy before the bottom drops out — the bass instruments literally stop playing— and the violins careen along with a gleeful tune, the orchestra interjecting with rude, good-natured blasts. The primary difference between this neoclassical offering and an actual symphony by Mozart or Haydn has to do with the speed and variety of Prokofiev’s modulations. In addition to contrasting orchestral exclamations and whispers, the composer also moves through different keys with frenetic rapidity, sometimes into unexpected territory.

This gives the music a sense of unpredictability and color, apparent in the slower second movement. Here, the orchestra ticks along with a metronome-like pulse throughout as violins or winds soar above with a graceful tune. In the third movement, the Gavotte — a medium-paced French dance from the 18th century — the music leaps and twirls quite literally with huge interval jumps in the melody and recurring trills. Prokofiev began sketching the symphony on walks through the countryside while traveling to escape some of the turmoil of the 1917 Russian Revolution — a hint of that ungainly, rustic environment permeates the Gavotte in the form of soft drones in the bass instrument, customary in country dances of old.

(A quick aside, during this period, composing at a piano was considered passé — the mark of the master was to compose purely in one’s head as Prokofiev attempted with this symphony.)

As for the finale: pure, radiant joy. The composer took pains to avoid including the shadow of a single minor key triad, and as the music bubbles and burbles along, it maintains a sense of gaiety and good humor straight through to the final notes. Prokofiev concluded the diary entry referenced above as follows: “But my true friends will see that the style of my symphony is precisely Mozartian classicism and will value it accordingly, while the public will no doubt just be content to hear happy and uncomplicated music which it will, of course, applaud.”

PROGRAM NOTES : LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

VIOLIN CONCERTO in D MAJOR, Op. 61

I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Larghetto III. Rondo: Allegro

DURATION: About 42 minutes

PREMIERED: Vienna, 1806

INSTRUMENTATION: Flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, solo violin and strings.

“I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.

“Only the pure of heart can make a good soup.”

— Ludwig Van Beethoven (Born 1770, Germany; died 1827)

CONCERTO: A composition that features one or more “solo” instruments with orchestral accompaniment. The form of the concerto has developed and evolved over the course of music history.

SCALE: A graduated sequence of notes that divide an octave, which itself occurs when any given pitch frequency is doubled. Different scales, major and minor, for example, divide the scale along different mathematical sequences.

FURTHER LISTENING:

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor Symphony No. 6 in F Major (“Pastoral”) Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major (“Kreutzer”)

by Jeremy Reynolds

Beethoven’s best-known rhythmic device has to be the opening of his fifth symphony, which is thoroughly saturated with the famous “short-short-short-long” pattern that unifies the entire work into a coherent whole. Even as the mood and texture and melodies of the symphony shift and evolve over the course of that work, the new tunes are imbued with that same instantly recognizable rhythmic cell, tattooing the pattern into listeners’ ears.

This idea of making rhythm a more individuated, integral aspect of his compositions isn’t limited to the fifth symphony. Turning to the Violin Concerto’s opening, five knocking notes on the timpani form a nucleus around which the entire movement develops. It’s a simple, elegant gesture that leads into a sweet singing passage in the winds. Then, strings take up that knocking pattern once more, a clear indication to listeners that it’ll be a key component of the concerto as opposed to a mere introductory motif.

The rest of the movement unfolds with similar simplicity, as the next moment approaching anything melodic is an ascending D major scale, one of the foundational building blocks of European tonality. These three elements, the opening wind phrase, the five-knock rhythm and the scale, form the entire basis for this movement, which spins these motifs into fully twenty-five minutes of music. When the violinist enters, it’s to dance nimbly above these straightforward component ideas, embellishing and commenting and dialoguing with the orchestra as Beethoven cycles the tunes through a variety of moods and permutations, always retaining that straightforward frankness of the opening.

The work is famous now, but it flopped at the premiere, delivered admirably by the prodigy Franz Clement, an influential critic. He alleged that “while there are beautiful things in the concerto, the sequence of events often seems incoherent and the endless repetition of some commonplace passages could easily prove fatiguing.” It was only later through the concentrated effort of violinist Joseph Joachim that the work became a staple of the repertoire.

A slow second movement retains the first’s commitment to celebrating the fundamentals of Western harmony with a set of variations on an uncomplicated melody. The finale is more boisterous and virtuosic, still built from another basic musical building block — the arpeggio, or broken chord, here adapted into a sort of “hunting horn” theme — in rondo form. Rondos introduce and repeat a principal melody that alternates with contrasting episodes, grounding such works with restatements of their opening music. Here, a soloist can exercise creative techniques to differentiate the repeated music, a dynamic shift here or a change in attitude there. This internal memory helps listeners track the work’s action through to the close, a fiery burst of call and response with the soloist and orchestra intended to bring listeners leaping to their feet.

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PROGRAM NOTES : STACY GARROP

SPECTACLE of LIGHT

DURATION: About 6 minutes

PREMIERED: Chicago, 2021

INSTRUMENTATION: Flute and piccolo, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, harpsichord and strings

“What it comes down to, for me, is that the most important musical parameters are form, the structure of the piece, and tension and relaxation.... that’s why storytelling is so appealing to me because I know what I want to do, I know how to move that tension, and if I see that story in my head, if I create a movie, I can literally make that shape match the form.”

— Stacy Garrop (Born 1969, U.S.)

PROGRAM MUSIC: Music of a narrative or descriptive kind; the term is often extended to all music that attempts to represent extra-musical concepts without resort to sung words. (Grove Dictionary of Music)

TONE POEM: A piece of orchestral music, typically one movement, based on an idea or story.

FURTHER LISTENING:

Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks Garrop: Goddess Triptych Shiva Dances The Battle for the Ballot

by Jeremy Reynolds

Music is abstract, ephemeral and personal. Different fragments of melody and harmonic progressions light up different bits of listeners’ brains based on what they’ve heard and internalized previously. This can make it difficult to follow a “story” in music without lyrics or some sort of written gloss.

Then again, sometimes a shape is so clear it’s hard to hear it as anything other than what it is. Take Stacy Garrop’s Spectacle of Light. Strings blaze trails of fire with the timpani thunders shocking reports as the harpsichord flashes and glistens with each explosion, an exciting, convincing recreation of musical fireworks if there ever was one.

Garrop, based in Chicago, writes music regularly for top ensembles around the country ranging from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and more. She described the work as follows:

When Music of the Baroque commissioned me to compose a piece in honor of their 50th anniversary season, I was delighted that my new piece would premiere on a concert entitled Baroque Fireworks. But what aspect of Baroque fireworks should I explore? I found the answer on Music of the Baroque’s website. In perusing the webpage for the Baroque Fireworks concert, I was mesmerized by the page’s backdrop image, which looked to be a hand-drawn picture of a fireworks show. A little research uncovered that the image is an etching of a 1749 fireworks spectacle that took place on the River Thames in honor of Great Britain’s King George II. The king had signed the 1748 treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle that officially ended the War of Austrian Succession, and as was typical in this era, he wanted to celebrate with a grand show of music and fireworks. This is the very same event for which George Frideric Handel wrote Music for the Royal Fireworks.

I was intrigued by the manner in which the etching’s artist represented the path of each individual firework, starting with an upward trajectory of a golden streak of light that inevitably bends and falls back towards the earth, blooming into glittering specks before flickering out. This inspired me to find other depictions and etchings of Baroque fireworks, as well as to view numerous modern-day fireworks shows on YouTube to study how they rise, bloom, and overlap with each other to create a rich, complex, and fleeting tapestry of color. I realized that fireworks and music share an ephemeral nature: they both delight our senses before fading into memory.

Ultimately, I decided that Spectacle of Light would represent the experience of a fireworks show. The music starts with great anticipation as the crowd waits in darkness, then a single firework illuminates the sky, followed by a massive eruption of light, color, and sound. After this initial frenzied burst, the fireworks quiet down into a slower-paced, mesmerizing display of colors before building to a big, fiery ending. As a tip of the hat to Music of the Baroque, I worked a few salient elements of the baroque style into my own musical language, as well as found a few choice spots to add a few subtle hints of Handel’s Royal Fireworks.

PROGRAM NOTES : WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

SYMPHONY NO. 40 in G MINOR, K. 550

I. Molto allegro II. Andante III. Menuetto: Allegretto IV. Finale: Allegro assai

DURATION: About 30 minutes

COMPLETED: 1788

INSTRUMENTATION: Flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, and strings

“All I insist on, and nothing else, is that you should show the whole world that you are not afraid. Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.”

— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Born 1756, Austria; died 1791)

SYMPHONY: An elaborate orchestral composition typically broken into contrasting movements, at least one of which is in sonata form.

SONATA FORM: A type of composition in three sections (exposition, development, and recapitulation) in which at least two themes or subjects are explored and developed throughout a movement.

FURTHER LISTENING:

Mozart: Don Giovanni Symphony No. 41 in C major (Jupiter) Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major The Magic Flute Symphony No. 25 in G Minor

by Jeremy Reynolds

Brace yourself: The illuminati are real, and Mozart was one of them.

OK, so they weren’t the nefarious cabal of world-controlling megalomaniacs that the conspiracy theories point to nowadays. Historically, the group was an elitist rationalist faction of the Freemasons active from 1776 to 1785. They stood in opposition to the more occult-obsessed faction of this historic fraternal order, and both sought to sway political decisions by currying influence among societal elites with debatable levels of success. Unless that’s only what they want us to think.

Mozart began his apprenticeship at a Freemason lodge in 1784 and aligned himself with the rationalists, including masonic themes in famous works like The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. The operas include numerous references to the rhythm of the society’s super-duper secret triple-knock: shortlong — long. (The masons were a bit obsessed with ritual and secrecy, the natural parents of conspiracy theories.) Then again, such rhythms were already common in the theatre. It’s quite impossible to untangle for certain.

More generally, their musical ideals tended toward straightforward melody and accompaniment rather than dense polyphony or counterpoint, a defining characteristic of the famous Symphony No. 40. Late in life, Mozart composed a trilogy of symphonies, the crown jewel of his symphonic output, the No. 39, 40 and 41. This middle work, the “Great G minor,” is one of only two symphonies he wrote in a minor key. (The other is the No. 25, also in G minor, the “Little G minor.”)

Mozart’s music tends to have a natural ebullience, a charm and grace that continues to endear it to listeners even centuries removed. This particular symphony is famously relentless. The first theme in the opening movement is argumentative and urgent, though it soon yields to a softer, sighing second theme that echoes sweetly in the winds. Then it’s back into the storm and conflict.

Despite the ingenuity of his late compositional period, Mozart struggled to support his family. History may not be completely clear about his commitment to the ideals of the Illuminati, but the brotherhood he found indeed helped to keep his fortunes afloat. Extant letters to fellow Freemason Michael Puchberg reveal his desperation: “Fate is so much against me… that even when I want to, I cannot make any money. So it all depends, my only friend, upon whether you will or can lend me another 500 gulden. Oh god! I can hardly bring myself to send this letter.”

Back to the symphony, a sensual second movement provides contrast, much like the principal two themes of the first movement. The Menuetto returns to mood to stately severity, exaggerated to the point of pomposity. The finale is explosive, combative even. An opening statement, a simple rising arpeggio in the strings, is ripped to shreds by the full orchestra repeatedly before the movement begins cycling through harmonic sequences a breakneck pace. This movement is rhythmically more straightforward than the opening allegro, though it mirrors the traditional sonata form by positing a kinder second theme.

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ABOUT JANE GLOVER

Acclaimed British conductor Jane Glover, named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, has been Music of the Baroque’s music director since 2002. She made her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975, conducting her own edition of Cavalli’s LʼEritrea. She joined Glyndebourne in 1979 and was music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1981 until 1985. She was artistic director of the London Mozart Players from 1984 to 1991, and has also held principal conductorships of both the Huddersfield and the London Choral Societies. From 2009 until 2016 she was Director of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music where she is now the Felix Mendelssohn Visiting Professor. She was recently Visiting Professor of Opera at the University of Oxford, her alma mater. Jane Glover has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. In recent seasons she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Sydney, Cincinnati, and Toronto symphony orchestras, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Bamberg Symphony. She has worked with the period-instrument orchestras Philharmonia Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society. And she has made regular appearances at the BBC Proms.

In demand on the international opera stage, Jane Glover has appeared with numerous companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Berlin Staatsoper, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera Australia, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera National du Rhin, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Luminato, Teatro Real, Madrid, Royal Danish Opera and Teatro La Fenice. A Mozart specialist, she has conducted all the Mozart operas all over the world regularly since she first performed them at Glyndebourne in the 1980s, and her core operatic repertoire also includes Monteverdi, Handel, and Britten. Highlights of recent seasons include The Magic Flute with the Metropolitan Opera, Alcina with Washington Opera, L’Elisir d’amore for Houston Grand Opera, Medea for Opera Omaha, Così fan tutte for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Turn of the Screw, Jephtha and Lucio Silla in Bordeaux, The Rape of Lucretia, A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream, Cosí fan tutte and Figaro at the Aspen Music Festival, Gluck’s Armide and Iphigenie en Aulide with Met Young Artists and Juilliard, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Eugene Onegin, The Rake’s Progress, The Marriage of Figaro, L’incoronazione di Poppea, and the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen! at the Royal Academy of Music. Next season she returns to the Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand Opera conducting The Magic Flute.

Future and recent-past engagements include her continuing seasons with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, her debut with Minnesota Opera (Albert Herring), her returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Orchestra of St Luke’s (at Carnegie Hall) and the London Mozart Players. In the 2019/2020 season she made debuts with the Bremen Philharmonic and the Malaysia Philharmonic. Next season she will make her debut with the Chicago Symphony.

Jane Glover’s discography includes a series of Mozart and Haydn symphonies with the London Mozart Players and recordings of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Britten, and Walton with the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, and the BBC Singers. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books Mozartʼs Women and Handel in London. She holds a personal professorship at the University of London, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and the holder of several honorary degrees. In 2020 she was given the Gamechanger award by the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Violinist Benjamin Baker has moved audiences around the world with his musicianship. He has established a strong international presence with recent performances as far afield as Lebanon, Albania, Siberia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, and throughout the United Kingdom and United States. Benjamin has performed as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic in London, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru in Wales, National Children’s Orchestra in Manchester, Auckland Philharmonia, Maui Pops Orchestra, and South Carolina’s Long Bay Symphony. ABOUT BENJAMIN BAKER

After winning First Prize and special performances prizes at the 2016 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Benjamin’s first U.S. tour included recital debuts at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. His other nationally and internationally significant awards and prizes include winning London’s Young Classical Artists Trust in 2013 and First Prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition. Benjamin was also a Fellow at the Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute.

Benjamin has also given recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, in Ireland, performed multiple engagements at New York’s Caramoor Center, and appeared at the Ravinia Festival and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. This season, he will perform as soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Long Bay Symphony, will appear at the Nexus Chamber Music Festival, and will give recitals with noted performing organizations including Buffalo Chamber Music Society and Pepperdine University. In addition, this season sees the launch of Benjamin’s festival in Queenstown, New Zealand-At the World’s Edge Festival. Benjamin’s recording “The Last Rose of

Summer” on Champs Hill Records was featured on BBC Radio 3and Classic

FM, and reached #22 on the charts the first week of release. In 2021, Delphian

Records released his album ‘1942’ with pianist Daniel Lebhardt.

By popular demand, Benjamin has returned to New Zealand to play concerts and appear on radio and television broadcasts. For his devotion to charities for children, he is grateful to be an

Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Port Nicholson, and he created and led a special London Music Masters project for young violinists with dancer

Cheryl McChesney, which explored the connection between music and movement.

Currently a resident of London, Benjamin studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and with Natasha Boyarsky and Felix

Andrievskyat the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Queen

Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Bowl graduation prize. He plays a Tononi violin (1709) on generous loan, and is recipient of support from the Wallace Foundation and Carne Trust. FORT WORTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | 15

ABOUT STACY GARROP

Stacy Garrop’s music is centered on dramatic and lyrical storytelling. The sharing of stories is a defining element of our humanity; we strive to share with others the experiences and concepts that we find compelling. She shares stories by taking audiences on sonic journeys – some simple and beautiful, while others are complicated and dark – depending on the needs and dramatic shape of the story.

Garrop is a full-time freelance composer living in the Chicago area. She served as the first Emerging Opera Composer of Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Program(2018-2020), during which she composed The Transformation of Jane Doe and What Magic Reveals with librettist Jerre Dye. She also held a 3-year composer-inresidence position with the ChampaignUrbana Symphony Orchestra (2016-2019), funded by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. Theodore Presser Company publishes her chamber and orchestral works; she self-publishes her choral pieces under Ink jar Publishing Company. Garrop is a Cedille Records artist with pieces currently on ten CDs; her works are also commercially available on several additional labels.

Garrop has received numerous awards and grants including an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fromm Music Foundation Grant, Barlow Prize, and three Barlow Endowment commissions, along with prizes from competitions sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Omaha Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Boston Choral Ensemble, Utah Arts Festival, and Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Earlier in her career, she participated in reading session programs sponsored by the American Composers Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra (the Composers Institute). Her catalog covers a wide range, with works for orchestra, opera, oratorio, wind ensemble, choir, art song, various sized chamber ensembles, and works for solo instruments. Recent commissions include The Battle for the Ballot for the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Shiva Dances for Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, Goddess Triptych for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Spectacle of Light for the Music of the Baroque Orchestra, and The Heavens Above Us for the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra. Notable past commissions include My Dearest Ruth for soprano and piano with text by Martin Ginsburg, the husband of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Glorious Mahalia for the Kronos Quartet, Give Me Hunger for Chanticleer, Rites for the After life for the Akropolis and Calefax Reed Quintets, Slipstream for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Musicians Chamber Music Series, and Terra Nostra: an oratorio about our planet, commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society and Piedmont East Bay Children’s Chorus. Her current commissions include projects with The Crossing, Newport Music Festival, KVNO Radio/Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and the Soli Deo Gloria Music Foundation.

Garrop previously served as composerin-residence with the Albany Symphony (2009/2010) and Skaneateles Festival (2011), and as well as on faculty of the Fresh Inc Festival (2012-2017). She taught composition and orchestration full-time at Roosevelt University (2000-2016) before leaving to launch her freelance career. She earned degrees in music composition at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (B.M.), University of Chicago (M.A.), and Indiana University-Bloomington (D.M.).