New O'Connor Composition Sets Classical Record

CD/ DVD Recording To Be Released 6/11
 
"Combining innovation and originality in a violin concerto with the challenge of improvisation has never been accomplished before Mark O'Connor's ‘The Improvised Violin Concerto.’” 
—Peter M. Thall Author of What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business

On June 11, Mark O’Connor will release a new composition, ‘The Improvised Violin Concerto,’ as both a CD and DVD. The piece is the first concerto in history to feature an entirely improvised solo over a composed orchestral score, and at nearly 40 minutes, constitutes the longest improvisation ever called for in a classical setting. 

Classical music scholars and historians have come together to praise O’Connor’s unique accomplishment. “This Concerto is the very first such composition which requires the soloist to spontaneously create in real time,” says Larry J. Livingston, Chair of the Department of Conducting at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. “Until O’Connor composed and performed the Improvised Violin Concerto in 2010, there had never been a composed violin concerto where the solo violin part would be completely improvised,” agrees Matt Glaser, Artistic Director of the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music. “In this first-ever foray into a combined improvised and structured musical journey of epic proportions, O'Connor shows us that he is the musical visionary of our generation, and of generations to come," says Juilliard School Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Rhode Island College, Judith Lynn Stillman.

The concerto comprises five movements: “Fire,” impassioned and intense; “Air,” providing levity; “Water,” playful and jazzy; “Earth,” evoking blues and rock; and “Faith,” infused with Southern Gospel and culminating in a "throw-down jubilee." The sheet music for the solo part consists of chord symbols, which indicate harmonies in the orchestration, rather than notes. To avoid conflict between the violin and the orchestra’s upper-register instruments, O’Connor assigned much of the thematic material to lower-register instruments like bass clarinet, English horn, bassoon and trombone.

OMAC Records will release the concerto as a CD/DVD package, with audio and video recordings of a performance by O’Connor and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, with Federico Cortese conducting. Also featured is the triple concerto "March of the Gypsy Fiddler" composed by Mark O'Connor and performed by The Ahn Trio with the New Jersey Youth Symphony, Jerffrey Grogan conducts.

Since winning the Grand Master Fiddler Championship at age 13, O’Connor has made invaluable contributions to American string music as a performer, composer and educator, with his Suzuki-alternative O’Connor Method quickly becoming a cornerstone of music education. ‘The Improvised Violin Concerto’ is the Grammy-winning artist’s 41st album in 40 years — a career The New York Times calls “one of the most spectacular journeys in recent American music.”

To mark the release, O’Connor and The Chelsea Symphony will present the New York City premiere of the work with a New York City premiere of his Americana Symphony on Saturday, June 1st at 7 p.m. at Symphony Space in Manhattan (tickets at http://www.symphonyspace.org).