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The GRAMMY Award-winning team of composer Michael Daugherty, conductor David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony returns with a set of remarkable works exploring associations with flight and space exploration. Daugherty’s long-established reputation for deftly-written concertos is extended here by a performance from violin soloist Anne Akiko Meyers, one of today’s leading violinists and a muse of distinguished composers, conductors and orchestras, both in America and beyond.
Michael DAUGHERTY (b. 1954)
Blue Electra *
Last Dance at the Surf
To the New World **
Anne Akiko Meyers, Violin *Elissa Johnston, Soprano obbligato **
Albany Symphony
David Alan Miller
This recording showcases three new evocative works by GRAMMY Award-winning American composer Michael Daugherty, exploring the triumphs and tragedies of flight. Blue Electra is a dramatic violin concerto inspired by the sensational life and mysterious disappearance of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart in 1937. Last Dance at the Surf is a one-movement dance symphony for orchestra that reflects upon rock ’n roll legend Buddy Holly’s final performance in 1959 at the Surf Ballroom in Iowa and his tragic death in a plane crash just hours after his show. To the New World for orchestra celebrates the triumphant Apollo 11 moon mission in 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s historic moonwalk. Under the baton of GRAMMY Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller, the Albany Symphony is joined by GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who performs Blue Electra with electrifying musicality and emotion.
III. From an Airplane (1921)
Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world’s most esteemed violinists who has commissioned, premiered and recorded violin works that have been performed around the world. In 2024 she received a GRAMMY Award for her recording of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She attended the Colburn School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School, where she serves on the board of trustees. She performs on the 1741 ‘Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’.
Soprano Elissa Johnston enjoys a diverse repertoire that ranges from Bach, Handel and Mozart to Messiaen, Carter and Reich. Recent highlights include performances of Michael Daugherty’s To the New World with the Albany Symphony, Peter Sellars’ production of Music to Accompany a Departure, which opened the 2023 Salzburger Festspiele, and the world premiere performance and recording of James MacMillan’s Fiat Lux with the Pacific Symphony.
GRAMMY Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller has been music director of the Albany Symphony since 1992, proving himself a creative and compelling orchestra builder and masterful interpreter of American contemporary music. Through commissioning and recording new works for orchestra alongside innovative educational and community outreach initiatives, he has reaffirmed the Albany Symphony’s reputation as one of the nation’s leading champions of American symphonic music and one of its most cutting-edge orchestras.
Founded in 1930, the Albany Symphony Orchestra fulfils its mission by performing, commissioning and recording the work of established and emerging American composers. Annual programming includes a nine-concert Classics Series; the annual American Music Festival, a capstone multi-day celebration of new music; a Family Series with costumed cast; and holiday and pops concerts, in collaboration with area youth performing arts groups.
– Fanfare
– Audiophile Audition ★★★★
– BBC Music Magazine
Reflections on the Mississippi
Glennie • Porter • Jantsch
Albany Symphony
Miller
– MusicWeb International