BY CAROLYN WATSON
As conductors, our role is imbued with great responsibility.
While we are arguably not creators in the same ilk as composers, we are rather curators, charged with overseeing, guiding, and managing the performance of written works.
In order for a composer’s works to secure a place in the repertoire and enjoy longevity, conductors or artistic administrators must program their pieces. For this reason, it is imperative conductors champion the works of living composers, and ideally, work collaboratively in support of fostering environments in which composers are called upon to create.
Particularly when we look to the 19th and 20th centuries, working in this manner to commission, promote, and introduce new orchestral works was for conductors de rigueur. For me personally, it is always a pleasure and a privilege to be able to conduct. However, there is a particular thrill about collaborating with a composer or creative team to bring works to life for the first time.
The 1874 Project
For these reasons, I am delighted to be in a position to have launched my first commissioning initiative – the 1874 Project, a commissioning and recording project at the University of Illinois where I am Director of Orchestras.
The year 1874 was the year of the first documented orchestral performance at the university, so it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up this landmark 150th anniversary in 2024, hence the genesis and launch of this project to commemorate this auspicious occasion.
Six female composers have been commissioned to write works for the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and they will be premiered during the 2025-26 season. There are plans to also make a short documentary film about the project as well as record the works for commercial release.
The aim and intention of the project is to change the world in some small way, as it were, via the expansion and diversification of the orchestral canon.
Most importantly, the brief given to the composers specified that the works composed must be able to be performed by a high-level high school, youth, or university orchestra – for if we are to truly expand the repertory, it is in these formative years that our work must be transformative. While there is no shortage of exceptional works penned by women composers, not all are playable by young musicians, hence this very specific brief.
Commissioning new music by women
As to why a commissioning project for women composers, a quick review of the most recent research by UK-based Donne Foundation offers some insight. According to the most recent report, only 7.5 percent of total works performed were composed by women. This data is from comprehensive research into the performances of 111 orchestras from 30 countries, to include some 16,327 total performances during the 2023-24 season.
Donne found “the top 10 composers, all historical white European men, accounted for 30.6 percent of all works. These 10 composers were played more than four times the combined total of all works by women”.
Donne also found ”Mozart was the most programmed composer with 1060 scheduled pieces, more than all living women composers combined”.
For these reasons, the decision to focus on commissioning works by women was determined to be intrinsically important.
Finding inspiration
The brief given composers specifies that the inspiration for their work is the year 1874, in whatever form they choose.
In her piece American Denim, Chicago-based Stacy Garrop has chosen to celebrate denim jeans and their centrality to American life, with 1874 being the year after Levi Strauss first patented blue jeans.
Kansas-based Ingrid Stölzel has taken her inspiration from a comet visible in both hemispheres during 1874 in her work called Comet Coggia. The other commissioned composers are Clarice Assad, Leanna Primiani, Stella Sung, and Nkeiru Okoye.
Only time will tell as to whether these commissioned pieces will gain and maintain a place in the repertoire. But with the help of like-minded conducting colleagues and orchestras committed to creative and sustainable programming, I very much hope so.
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Conductor Carolyn Watson has conducted world premieres by composers including Alan Hankers, Laura Karpman, Thomas Meadowcroft, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Michael Thurber, along with the US premieres of works by Australian composers Katia Beaugeais, Elena Kats-Chernin, Matthew Hindson and John Peterson.
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