Danzmayr Conducts Cuong & Strauss • NOI Philharmonic
Danzmayr Conducts Cuong & Strauss • NOI Philharmonic
ABOUT THE EVENT
The NOI+F 2025 season comes to a close with an evening of world-changing music, with grandiose themes and big ideas given musical shape. The much-in-demand composer Viet Cuong's 2024 work, John and Jim, is a playfully melodic composition centering on the relationship of John Arthur and Jim Obergefell, the titular plaintiff of the Obergefell v. Hodges 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in America. This new transcript of John and Jim for full orchestra, commissioned exclusively by NOI+F, will debut nearly ten years to the day after the passing of that highly influential case. We continue on with 20th-century German Romantic composer, Richard Strauss. Strauss' short comic opera Der Rosenklavier and the symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra are generally acknowledged as his best known works. Indeed, the modern association of Zarathustra's opening with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey imbues Strauss' opus with an indelible spirit of expansion and evolution. These masterpieces are squarely in the interpretive wheelhouse of Austrian-born conductor David Danzmayr, making his NOI+F debut. Danzmayr's stellar seasons as director of the Oregon Symphony have rendered him one of his generation's most celebrated conductors.
PROGRAM
Cuong: John and Jim
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
FUNDING
The National Orchestral Institute + Festival is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation and the Nicolae Bretan Music Foundation.
ABOUT NOI+F
This event is part of Clarice Presents' National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F). NOI+F brings together aspiring orchestral musicians from across the country for a month of dynamic music-making and professional exploration. Chosen through a rigorous, cross-country audition process, these young artists present passionate and thrilling performances of adventurous repertoire at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (The Clarice).
Internationally recognized conducting luminary Marin Alsop was appointed first-ever music director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival in 2020. As music director, Alsop leads the NOI+F Conducting Academy and conducts multiple concerts at The Clarice each June.
NOI+F entered into a partnership with Naxos Records that has already produced six albums, including a GRAMMY nomination in the category of “Best Orchestral Performance” in 2018.