Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), ranked among the world’s top musical ensembles, presents a new LACO AT HOME digital program featuring an exclusive interview with British cello virtuoso Sheku Kanneh-Mason, one of the brightest young stars on the classical music scene, in conversation with LACO Music Director Jaime Martín. The program also offers a special performance by Kanneh-Mason and his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, who play the final two movements from Rachmaninoff's Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19; an excerpt from a LACO-commissioned world premiere of Prisms, Cycles, Leaps Part III: “To Be a Horizon" by composer and musician Derrick Spiva Jr., who serves as LACO’s first Artist-Educator; and a presentation of LACO's 2016 performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica” under the direction of Guest Conductor Thomas Dausgaard. The program will be livestreamed with the premiere broadcast on Saturday, May 16, 8 pm, and an encore on Sunday, May 17, 2020, 7 pm (Pacific time) and available subsequently on demand. LACO AT HOME was introduced in late March of this year to offer special and expanded web content. The livestreamed event is offered free of charge through the generous financial support of LACO donors. All broadcasts can be live-streamed at laco.org/broadcasts and streamed on-demand at laco.org/on-demand.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason's 2018 U.S. orchestral debut with LACO was postponed due to his “command performance” at the Royal Wedding, after which he became a household name when his work, viewed by more than two billion people worldwide, was greeted with universal excitement. He was to have again debuted with LACO this month at the 2020/21 season's final Orchestral Series concerts until the performances were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first black musician to win a BBC Young Musician of the Year award, Kanneh-Mason performed under Martín's direction with orchestras across Europe earlier this year. Their conversation covers a range of topics, from the Royal Wedding to life in the pandemic.
Spiva Jr.'s Prisms, Cycles, Leaps Part III, "To Be A Horizon," the result of many years of experimentation, training, and research, is the third in a series of works of a similar theme: building bridges between different communities through sound. As in the previous two parts, the work continues to integrate musical practices from numerous cultures into a Western classical setting. The piece includes rhythmic elements from Ghanaian drumming; Persian classical music; and Indian classical tala as well as melodic elements found in West and North Africa, Bulgarian folk music and blues, gospel, and bluegrass music of the United States.
Dausgaard is currently Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Laureate of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Honorary Conductor of Orchestra della Toscana/ORT and Honorary Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR.
This special broadcast is all about supporting Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's stellar musicians, and we ask that viewers consider making a donation to LACO in support of the artists on screen. To make a donation, visit LACO.org/donate or call (213) 622-7001, EXT. 4. To enjoy LACO AT HOME's programs and features, visit www.LACO.org/laco-at-home.