Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) Celebrates 70th Birthday of composer John Harbison

Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) celebrates the 70th birthday of composer John Harbison (b.1938) one of America's most prominent artistic figures. BMOP presents the first complete performance of Harbison's revised version of  "Winter's Tale" his first opera, on Friday, March 20th, 8:00 PM, at Jordon Hall. A free, pre-performance talk by Pulitzer Prize winner Harbison begins at 7:00 PM. "Winter's Tale" part of BMOP's 20th Century Classic program launched last year, is sponsored by American Express.

Boston's top vocalists will perform in "Winter's Tale" : mezzo-sopranos Janna Baty and Pamela Dellal; soprano Anne Harley; tenor Matthew Anderson; baritones Aaron Engebreth and David Kravitz; and bass vocalists Paul Guttry and Dana Whiteside

BMOP'S ongoing effort to perform and disseminate Harbison's significant, yet unknown, early works, dates back to premiere of Harbison's complete ballet "Ulysses" in 2003 and includes "Winter's Tale" (2009). 

"It's a great honor to present to Boston for the first time John Harbison's first opera. It's a debut that is long overdue," said Gil Rose, BMOP's Artistic Director/Conductor. Premiered in San Francisco (1979), revised in 1991. "Winter's Tale" was composed between 1972-1974 without a commission or scheduled performance. Support from a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) grant allowed Harbison to write the orchestral score by spending three months free from teaching commitments.

"Winter's Tale" is closer to a Greek drama than a transcription of Shakespeare: two acts separated by twenty years gives greater prominence to Time as a narrator than Shakespeare's plays, introduces both acts and figures in the action of the opera. Harbison constructed the libretto from Shakespeare's play. The "dense texture" of Act I expresses "the disordered mind of Leontes, and the dislocated state of the whole cosmos." Harbison's program notes explain.

The orchestra's record label BMOP/sound will release "Winter's Tale" in 2011 and, on April first, his opera "Full Moon" in March. Accolades in 2008, for BMOP/sound include a Grammy® nomination for the release Charles Fussell: Wilde and Best CDs of 2008 (Time Out New York). New CDs are being released on a monthly basis with eleven CDs slated for 2009.

Asked for his "artistic credo" in 1999, Harbison replied "to make each piece different from the others, to find clear, fresh large designs, to reinvent traditions". Composer of over 70 works of opera, choral, voice with orchestra and chamber/solo works, Harbison won a Pulitzer Prize (1987) for the cantata "The Flight into Egypt." The Metropolitan Opera commissioned his "The Great Gatsby" to celebrate Maestro James Levine's 25^th anniversary with the company; it premiered in 1999. An Institute Professor at M.I.T. since 1969, Harbison studied music at Harvard then Princeton and is a former student of Walter Piston and Roger Sessions, First national attention came from Boston Symphony Orchestra's 1976 premiere of "Diotima" commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation. As a conductor, he has worked with the Cantata Singers (1969-1973) and Collage, a new-music group established in 1984. Principle guest director of Emmanuel Music in Boston, in 2007 he became the Acting Artistic Director.

Founded in 1996 by Gil Rose, Artistic Director, Boston Modern Orchestra Project is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music. Since its founding in 1996, BMOP has commissioned new works and re-discovered "classics" of the 20th century, infusing them with the emotion, humor, and urgency that have been hallmarks of the modern era and its music.

Ticket Information:  Tickets range from $10 - $52. Students 50% discount. Seniors 10% discount. FREE pre-concert talk with John Harbison @ 7:00pm. For tickets, call Jordan Hall 617.585.1260 or visit  www.newenglandconservatory.edu/jordanhall.  Tickets are also available for sale at the Jordan Hall Box Office three weeks before the concert and at the door, subject to availability.