Discovery Ensemble

Last updated

Discovery Ensemble (DE)
Chamber orchestra
Founded2008 (2008)
LocationBoston, Massachusetts
Concert hall
Principal conductor Courtney Lewis

Discovery Ensemble was a Boston-based chamber orchestra [1] founded by Music Director Courtney Lewis and Artistic Director David St. George. The orchestra, made up of young professionals from the Boston area, gave its inaugural concert in October 2008. [2] It disappeared from the Boston music scene after an announcement cancelling the already advertised 2014 season. [3]

Contents

Discovery Ensemble had two missions. It was a chamber orchestra that performed to local acclaim in the Boston Globe [4] [5] and the Boston Phoenix. [6] [7] [8] [9] Concerts took place at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [10] [11]

Discovery Ensemble's second mission was education. The orchestra presented four Discovery Programs per year, each consisting of two in-school workshops [12] and a matinee concert for children from local schools. [13] The schools' concerts took place at Strand Theatre in Dorchester, Massachusetts. [14]

Discovery Ensemble played live regularly on WGBH Radio and was featured as Critics' Choice on NPR. [15] [16] In December 2009, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix named Discovery Ensemble Boston's "Best Kept Secret". [17]

History

The orchestra played its first concert in October 2008 in the Strand Theatre, Dorchester with Ginastera's Variaciones concertantes, Stravinsky's Danses concertantes, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. [2] [14] [18]

The orchestra was founded because directors Courtney Lewis and David St. George saw the possibility, given the abundance of young professional musicians in Boston, of forming and training a large (40 players) chamber orchestra that could perform at the highest international level.

Discovery Ensemble was particularly associated with schools and community centers in Dorchester. [13]

Reviews

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Symphony Orchestra</span> American symphony orchestra in Boston, MA

The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood.

<i>The Phoenix</i> (newspaper) Former American alternative weekly periodical

The Phoenix was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the Portland Phoenix and the now-defunct Boston Phoenix, Providence Phoenix and Worcester Phoenix. These publications emphasized local arts and entertainment coverage as well as lifestyle and political coverage. The Portland Phoenix, which was published until 2023, is now owned by another company, New Portland Publishing.

Ron Della Chiesa is a Boston area radio personality. Born in 1938 in Quincy, Massachusetts, he was taken by his father to jazz and Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts in the early 1950s, and developed an ear for both genres. His commentaries, originally on WGBH radio and now WCRB for the Boston Symphony are broadcast on Saturday evenings. These broadcasts as well as his commentary at the Sunday Tanglewood Festival in the summertime are informed by his lifelong attendance of the orchestra, dating back to conductors Charles Münch and Erich Leinsdorf.

Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vijay Iyer</span> American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer, and writer

Vijay Iyer is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. The New York Times has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway". Iyer received a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. He was voted Jazz Artist of the Year in the DownBeat magazine international critics' polls in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2018. In 2014, he received a lifetime appointment as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he was jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.

Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera Silent Night and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WGBH (FM)</span> Public radio station in Boston

WGBH is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WGBH is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and affiliate of Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and American Public Media (APM). The license-holder is WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns company flagship WGBH-TV and WGBX-TV, along with WGBY-TV in Springfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andris Nelsons</span> Latvian conductor (born 1978)

Andris Nelsons is a Latvian conductor. He is currently music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He was previously music director of the Latvian National Opera, chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Cohler</span> Musical artist

Jonathan Cohler is an American classical clarinetist, conductor, music educator and record producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Schwendinger</span> Mexican composer

Laura Elise Schwendinger was the first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin's Berlin Prize.

Martin Owen is a British classical horn player. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He was principal horn of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) 1998–2008. In 2008, he was appointed principal horn of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Founded as the Lexington Sinfonietta in 1995 by conductor Hisao Watanabe, the Lexington Symphony is a group of musicians from the Lexington, Massachusetts, area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham Waterhouse</span> English composer (born 1962)

Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, Three Pieces for Solo Cello and Variations for Cello Solo for his own instrument, and string quartets and compositions that juxtapose a quartet with a solo instrument, including Piccolo Quintet, Bassoon Quintet and the piano quintet Rhapsodie Macabre. He has set poetry for speaking voice and cello, such as Der Handschuh, and has written song cycles. His compositions reflect the individual capacity and character of players and instruments, from the piccolo to the contrabassoon.

Gil Rose is the founder and conductor of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), founder and General-Artistic Director of Odyssey Opera, Artistic Director of Monadnock Music Festival, Professor of Practice at Northeastern University, and Executive Producer of the record label "BMOP/sound."

Courtney Lewis is a British conductor.

Yelena Dudochkin is a soprano who is Ukrainian-American known for her "gorgeous, expressive and rich voice...a true pearl of the opera" and her "dramatic intelligence".

A Far Cry is a Boston-based chamber orchestra. The orchestra is self-conducted and consists of 18 musicians called "The Criers". It was founded in 2007 by a group of 17 musicians in Boston. The orchestra rehearses in Jamaica Plain and has been the Chamber Orchestra in Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum since 2009. A Far Cry has toured across America and undertook their first European tour in 2012. They also collaborate with local students in an educational partnership with the New England Conservatory. The orchestra has released nine albums, two of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance: Dreams & Prayers in 2015 and Visions and Variations in 2019.

The Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston is a classical chamber music ensemble in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1998 by Artistic Director Deborah Boldin. After 15 years, Chameleon had produced 150 concerts with almost 400 different works by 105 composers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcelo Lehninger</span> Music director

Marcelo Lehninger is music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony, a professional orchestra located in Michigan, U.S.A., and artistic director of the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Bettison</span> British/American composer

Oscar Bettison is a British/American composer known for large-scale chamber and large ensemble works. He has been described as possessing "a unique voice". His work has been described as having "An unconventional lyricism and a menacing beauty" and "pulsating with an irrepressible energy and vitality, as well as brilliant craftsmanship." He is a member of the composition faculty at the Peabody Institute. Bettison has recently been named a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

References

  1. ↑ "ArtsBoston Members". Artsboston.org. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  2. 1 2 "Strand Spotlight Continues With Two Great Performances | City of Boston". Cityofboston.gov. 22 October 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  3. ↑ "Discovery Ensemble suddenly ceases operations - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  4. ↑ "Discovery Ensemble shows exuberance from the start – The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. 27 January 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  5. ↑ "Courtney Lewis and Discovery Ensemble help make classical accessible – The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. 16 January 2010. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  6. ↑ Schwartz, Lloyd (27 January 2009). "Anniversaries and other occasions – Classical". Thephoenix.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Schwartz, Lloyd (10 June 2009). "Springer vs. Nero! – Classical". Thephoenix.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  8. ↑ Schwartz, Lloyd (13 October 2009). "The roar of the crowd – Classical". Thephoenix.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  9. ↑ Schwartz, Lloyd (4 January 2010). "2009: The year in Classical – Classical". Thephoenix.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  10. ↑ "Schott Music". Schott Music. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  11. ↑ "Local movies, theaters, showtimes, events, concerts and festivals – MSN Local Edition Movies & Events". Thingstodo.msn.com. 31 December 1999. Retrieved 20 October 2011.[ permanent dead link ]
  12. ↑ "lavidainc". La-vida.org. 19 September 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  13. 1 2 "Orchestra helps young people discover classical music | Dorchester Reporter". Dotnews.com. 23 April 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  14. 1 2 Archived 5 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "WGBH Homepage". Mediaplayer.wgbh.org. Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  16. ↑ "Discovery Ensemble". InstantEncore. 18 March 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  17. ↑ Schwartz, Lloyd (4 January 2010). "2009: The year in Classical – Classical". Thephoenix.com. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  18. ↑ "Schott Music". Schott Music. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.