| Symphony Number One | |
|---|---|
| Orchestra | |
 | |
| Short name | SNO |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Location | Baltimore, Maryland, US |
| Concert hall |
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| Principal conductor | Jordan Randall Smith |
| Website | symphonynumber |
Symphony Number One (SNO) is a chamber orchestra primarily devoted to new music based in Baltimore, Maryland. SNO performs each year in musical venues in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, at Morgan State University, and across the city. Jordan Randall Smith is Symphony Number One's founder and current music director. [1] [2]
Symphony Number One was founded in 2015 by Jordan Randall Smith, Nicholas Bentz, and Sean Meyers, all of whom were graduate and undergraduate students at the Peabody Institute. [3] [4] Symphony Number One is a chamber orchestra devoted to performing works by emerging composers. A non-profit performing arts organization, SNO maintains close relationships with the other independent classical music organizations of Baltimore, and is a part of Maryland's classical arts space. [5] With its focus on contemporary music, SNO can also be classified as a contemporary classical ensemble.
The orchestra's president is Dr. Janan Broadbent and Ben Goldberg is SNO's composer-in-residence. The orchestra's current concertmaster is Nikita Borisevich. Founder Jordan Randall Smith and co-founder Nicholas Bentz are current members of the collective. The other co-founder was saxophonist Sean Meyers; Smith, Bentz, and Meyers first met at the Peabody Institute. [6] The three put together the inaugural concert in May 2015 at the Baltimore War Memorial. [7] [8] In 2017, SNO appointed Brian Tracey as executive director. [9]
SNO was invited to perform at the inaugural Light City festival on April 2, 2016, in Baltimore. [10] [11] [12] In September 2016, Symphony Number One began its second season with compositions by Richard Strauss, Mahler, and Steve Reich. [13] SNO was named a "Category Buster" by Baltimore Magazine in their 2016 "Best of Baltimore" issue; [14] SNO also won runner up for "Best Band" in Baltimore Magazine's Reader's Poll. [15] In addition, SNO was featured in I Care if You Listen's Mixtape #20. [16]
Symphony Number One emphasizes inclusionary policies in orchestra membership, audience access, and selection of featured composers. [17] [18] SNO is a two-time recipient of grants by Women's Philharmonic Advocacy for multiple commissions of female composers. [19] [20]
SNO is the 2019 winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Performance. [21] [22]
Symphony Number One's cornerstone project is the commissioning of new works. SNO has commissioned several works from American and international composers, which include:
SNO is a flexible collective of approximately thirty artist-entrepreneurs, including instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, and sound and production designers. The musicians also serve as the executive and operational leadership. [36] [37]
SNO offers small tours concerts called "SNO on the Road". In February 2016, members Sean Meyers and Elizabeth G. Hill used the series to present saxophone and piano recitals in which the piano reduction of the Andrew Boss Saxophone Concerto was premiered, their second album– Emergence –was released, and the sheet music for the concerto went on sale. [39] [40]
More recently, Symphony Number One performed at TEDxMidAtlantic 2017 in Washington, D.C. [41] [42]
SNO offers several programs to engage with a variety of audiences in Baltimore as well as to work with composers internationally.
In May 2016, Melissa Lander presented SNO's first significant chamber music concert under the umbrella of "Beethoven's Kitchen". [43] [44] The series focuses both on new music and concert experiences and on combining food and drink. [45] [46]
SNO holds an annual Call for Scores competition, recognizing two winners each year. The winning composers are commissioned to write new works for Symphony Number One. [47] In its third call for scores, Symphony Number One added a number of additional prizes, including the "Maryland Prize," recognizing a Maryland composer's achievements. Howard County native Karena Ingram was the winner. [48]
SNO emphasizes recordings as an integral component of its program. [50] In addition to freely releasing live performances of individual compositions, SNO records albums on its own custom label, SNOtone.
Hilary Hahn is an American violinist. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemporary classical music, and several composers have written works for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon, partitas by Antón García Abril, two serenades for violin and orchestra by Einojuhani Rautavaara, and a violin and piano sonata by Lera Auerbach.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it began regular performances at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda.
Chen Yi is a Chinese-American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts (M.A.) in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Chen was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Si Ji, and has received awards from the Koussevistky Music Foundation and American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School and in 2012, she was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019.
Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.
Michael Nathaniel Hersch is an American composer and pianist. He currently serves as faculty at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed his own studies in music composition. The New York Times has commented that he writes "extraordinarily communicative music" and that "Mr. Hersch's music speaks for itself eloquently".
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.
Matthew John Hindson AM is an Australian composer.
Avner Dorman is an Israeli-born composer, educator and conductor.
Anna Clyne is an English composer resident in the USA. She has worked in both acoustic music and electroacoustic music.
Timothy McAllister is an American classical saxophonist and music educator, who, as of 2014, is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Jordan Randall Smith is an American conductor, arts entrepreneur, and percussionist. He is the music director of Symphony Number One and conductor of the Hopkins Concert Orchestra at Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Visiting assistant professor of Music and Director of Orchestra at Susquehanna University.
SNOtone is an independent record label founded in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015 by Jordan Randall Smith. The label's catalogue is devoted to classical and contemporary classical music.
Jonathan Leshnoff is an American classical music composer and pedagogue.
More is the third live album by contemporary classical ensemble Symphony Number One, featuring music by Natalie Draper, Andrew Posner, and Jonathan Russell. The album was released on December 16, 2016 and debuted to critical attention in local and national publications.
Approaching is the fourth live album by contemporary classical chamber orchestra Symphony Number One. The album was released on November 3, 2017 and features the music of Nicholas Bentz, Martha Horst, and Hangrui Zhang. The majority of the disk is taken up by Nicholas Bentz’s work Approaching Eternity.
Andrew M. Boss is an American composer. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Texas and his masters at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. His teachers include Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Russell Pinkston, Kevin Puts, Daniel Crozier, and Donald Waxman. Boss's work, Tetelestai, was commissioned by Jerry Junkin and the University of Texas Wind ensemble and premiered in November 2014. The work reflects the feelings and emotions behind the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The work has received its Australian premiere by John Lynch and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Wind Symphony in September 2016.
Emergence is the second release by contemporary classical chamber orchestra Symphony Number One. The album was released on March 4, 2016. An EP, the album has only two tracks totaling less than 30 minutes. The two tracks comprise the two-movement Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Small Chamber Orchestra by Andrew Boss. The concerto was recorded at the season opener of Symphony Number One’s Inaugural Season. The album was recognized on Icareifyoulisten’s Mixtape #20 and twice featured on MPT’s Artworks.
Symphony Number One is the self-titled debut album by Baltimore chamber orchestra Symphony Number One. The album was released in November 2015 to positive reviews. Composer Mark Fromm’s offered the eponymous Symphony No. 1, the first commission by the orchestra. Fromm, a bassoonist, opens the work with an extended bassoon solo.
Natalie Draper is an American composer who teaches composition at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music.
Bryan Young is an American bassoonist and technology entrepreneur.
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