At the Oakland East Bay Symphony, they jokingly call it their “virtual world tour”: a series of concerts featuring music and musicians from one of the many cultures woven into the rich fabric of the Bay Area community. In past years these concerts featured music and musicians from Persia, Armenia, and China. Next year’s concert will be about Israel and Palestine — not exactly the most obvious places to look for symphonic music. This year’s concert, called “Notes From the Philippines,” is no exception.
“I could choose countries like Germany and France, but we play that music anyway,” explains Music Director Michael Morgan in his Oakland studio. “Along with its musical mission, the OEBS has a social mission. We highlight countries, and we have had some incredible performers and pieces. But the concerts are also an effort to connect with major segments of our Bay Area population, different from our regular concertgoers. There is an element of audience-building, but the larger and more important purpose is to bring the Bay Area together,” says Morgan.
The country-themed concerts are also a way to generate new symphonic repertoire, which is something of a Michael Morgan thing, anyway. For the upcoming concert, he commissioned two compositions. By means of connections at the San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival, he found two young Filipino-American composers, Victor Noriega and Art Khu, both of them pianists and jazz musicians — and novices when it comes to writing for symphony orchestra.
“I like the fact that they are both Americans with deep Filipino roots,” says Morgan. “That is very much what America is about. Both have been asked to incorporate Filipino folk music and other traditional elements.” At the time of the interview, he had barely had time to look at the scores, let alone study them. “But you can tell from the music that you are dealing with piano composers; a lot of the writing is very pianistic.”
Inspired by a Living Culture
In his new composition, Generations, Directions, Noriega wants to evoke the journey of three generations of Filipino immigrants in North America and describe the directions that each generation takes. During the concert, he will play the prominent piano part of his new composition.
The country-themed concerts are a way to generate new symphonic repertoire.
For his work, Khu took inspiration from a more general human experience, and writes: “Life is a heroic journey with a beginning, middle and end. The rhythm and song of this journey form a Symphony of Souls.”
The “Notes From the Philippines” concert also features two samples from the more traditional concert repertoire, Mendelssohn’s overture to Ruy Blas and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, played by Oakland native David Requiro, who, as it turned out, is also part Filipino. “But that is more or less a coincidence; he was already booked when we found out,” says Maestro Morgan.