Horizons: Beethoven Skye

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), under the baton of Music Director Jaime Martín, presents the world premiere of Artistic Advisor Derrick Skye’s To Be A Horizon, on Saturday, April 20, 2024, 8 pm, at Glendale’s Alex Theatre, and Sunday, April 21, 2024, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Skye describes his LACO-commissioned work as “a musical travelogue that integrates musical practices from numerous cultures into a Western classical setting.”

The program, featuring works that unifies, continues with Assistant Concertmaster Tereza Stanislav and Principal Viola Yura Lee sharing their stellar artistry as soloists on Mozart’s searingly beautiful Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major for violin and viola. Beethoven’s transitional Symphony No. 4, a work celebrating Beethoven’s legacy of breaking musical boundaries and noted for its cheerfulness, caps the concert.

Skye’s To Be A Horizon combines formal western classical music with West African music and dance, Persian music theory, Balkan music theory, and Hindustani classical music. The American-born composer is himself of Ghanaian, Nigerian, British, Irish, and Native American ancestry, and he seeks to create a new American music aesthetic reflective of his and the country’s diversity. To Be A Horizon is Part 3 of a larger orchestral suite entitled Prisms, Cycles, Leaps that bridges the space between multiple music cultures.

The featured performance of Tereza Stanislav is made possible, in part, with the generous support from Terri Jerry Kohl and Ruth Eliel Bill Cooney.  Additional support for Beethoven Skye is provided by Carol Eliel Tom Muller. 

LACO recognizes the generous support of the Colburn Foundation. The Orchestra also receives public funding via grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; State of California; California Arts Council; the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. LACO gratefully acknowledges Hogan Lovells US LLP for generous pro bono support.   

Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.  

Tickets ($32-$142) may be purchased online at laco.org or by calling LACO at 213 622 7001 x1. Discounted tickets are also available by phone for seniors 65 years of age and older and for students.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Yura Lee (viola) is a sought-after soloist and chamber artist on both violin and viola. At age 12, she was the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at NPR's "Performance Today" awards. She has since won top prizes at competitions on three continents and received one of Lincoln Center's prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grants. Today, she frequently appears as a soloist and chamber musician with major organizations across the USA and beyond and is currently a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Boston Chamber Music Society. A renowned pedagogue as well, she teaches at USC's Thornton School of Music. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Tokyo Philharmonic, to name a few. She has performed with conductors Christophe Eschenbach, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, and Mikhail Pletnev, among many others. As a chamber musician, Lee regularly takes part in the Marlboro Festival, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Caramoor Festival, Kronberg Festival, and Aspen Music Festival, among others. She has collaborated with such artists as Gidon Kremer, Andras Schiff, Leonidas Kavakos, Mitsuko Uchida, Miklós Perényi, Yuri Bashmet, Menahem Pressler, and Frans Helmerson. Lee studied at the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Salzburg Mozarteum, and Germany’s Kronberg Academy. Her primary teachers were Namyun Kim, Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Thomas Riebl, Ana Chumachenko, and Nobuko Imai. Lee plays a viola made in 2002 by Douglas Cox, who resides in Vermont.

Jaime Martín (music director/conductor) assumed his LACO post and also became Chief Conductor of Ireland’s RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in September 2019. In LACO concert reviews, the Los Angeles Times has hailed Martín’s “infectious music making,” noting “the musicians seem to be having a blast. The audience is invited to the party.” Overseas, he has been praised as "a visionary conductor, discerning and meticulous" (Platea Magazine), and London's The Telegraph said, "his infectious enjoyment of the music communicated to the orchestra and audience alike.” He has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra since 2013 and is the Artistic Advisor of the Santander Festival.  He was also a founding member of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, where he was Chief Conductor from 2012 to 2019. Having spent many years as a highly regarded flautist, Martín turned to conducting full-time in 2013, and very quickly became sought after at the highest level.  Recent engagements include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony and Gulbenkian orchestras, as well as a nine-city European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Martín has recorded a series of highly acclaimed Brahms discs for Ondine Records with the Gävle Symphony and various discs with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra for Tritó Records. He has also commissioned multiple world and regional premieres of works by composers, including Ellen Reid, Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, Derrick Skye, Albert Schnelzer and Juan Pablo Contreras. As a flautist, Martín was principal flute of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, English National Opera, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Jaime Martín is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a flute professor.  

Derrick Skye (composer) is a composer, conductor, and musician based in the Los Angeles area who often integrates music practices from different cultural traditions around the world into his works. The Los Angeles Times has described his music as “something to savor” and “enormous fun to listen to.”The Times (London) described Skye’s music as “deliciously head-spinning.” During his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and the California Institute of the Arts, music across many cultures became an integral part of his musical vocabulary. Skye studied classical music with Ian Krouse, Alex Shapiro, Paul Chihara, Randy Gloss, and David Rosenboom while also studying West African music and dance with Kobla Ladzekpo, Beatrice Lawluvi, and Yeko Ladzekpo-Cole; Persian music theory with Pirayeh Pourafar and Houman Pourmehdi; Balkan music theory with Tzvetanka Varimezova; and tala (rhythmic cycles) in Hindustani classical music with Swapan Chaudhuri and Aashish Khan. Skye’s music has been commissioned and/or performed by ensembles including Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada), Chicago Sinfonietta, Albany Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Berkeley Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, The National Orchestral Institute at Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Conspirare, EXIGENCE, Cantori New York, Cecilia Chorus New York, Yale Glee Club, The Juilliard School, Sphinx Virtuosi, Lincoln Center, Bridge to Everywhere, Salastina Music Society, Lyris Quartet, Super Devoiche (Bulgarian Women’s Choir), and Lian Ensemble (Persian Ensemble). Skye received the New Music USA Award in 2010 and 2011 and was awarded a composer residency with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra through New Music USA’s “Music Alive” program for the 2015-2016 season. In 2021, Skye was awarded the Prince Grace Honoraria in the Theatre category for his work “Mother of Bravery” and “Best New Composition” in the San Francisco Classical Voice Audience Choice Awards for his work “Mind the Rhythm” for violin and electronics. Skye has given pre-concert talks and workshops about the use of non-Western music in his compositions at universities and institutions including UCLA, USC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Skirball Cultural Center. He served as a composer panelist for the 2022 and 2019 League of American Orchestras Conference, and previously spoke at the 2016 conference on the topic of how classical music orchestras can forge stronger relationships with their diverse communities. Skye serves as Artistic Director of the new music collective and arts organization Bridge to Everywhere, Director of Instrumental Ensembles at Mount Saint Mary’s University, and Artistic Advisor for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Skye is an American who has Ghanaian, Nigerian, British, Irish, and Native American ancestry. His ancestry and identity have led him to claim and develop an “American” aesthetic that incorporates many cultural influences into his work, reflecting the diverse communities he is part of. Skye passionately believes in music as a doorway into understanding other cultures and different ways of living. Through learning the music of other cultures, the opportunity for dialogue rather than conflict between strangers is opened, and our society can become one with less conflict due to cultural misunderstanding. He is deeply invested in fostering creative and effective collaboration between artists of different disciplines and traditions.

Tereza Stanislav (violin), who divides her time among chamber, solo, orchestral and recording projects, has been hailed for her “expressive beauty and wonderful intensity” (Robert Mann) of her playing, her “sure technique and musical intelligence” (Calgary Herald), and “ her sweet tone, brilliant phrasing, uncannily pointed rhythm and pure intonation (even at the violin’s highest and lowest extremities)” (Huffington Post). Stanislav was the featured soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of the Violin Concerto by Benjamin Wallfisch about which the Los Angeles Times wrote, “she gave a magisterial rendition” and “held the audience rapt.” An active and highly sought after chamber musician, she has appeared in venues including the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. She has performed in concert with artists including Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Jon Kimura Parker. In 2004, Stanislav released a CD in collaboration with pianist Hung-Kuan Chen. She served as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera’s 2010 production of The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Maestro Plácido Domingo.In 2009, Stanislav was invited to be the Chamber Music Collaborator for Sonata Programs and member of the jury for the Sixth Esther Honens International Piano Competition. An advocate for new music, Stanislav has worked with composers including Steve Reich, Gunther Schuller, Joan Tower, Toshio Hosokawa and Louis Andriessen. World premieres include Gunther Schuller’s Horn Quintet (2009) with Julie Landsman, Louis Andriessen’s The City of Dis (2007), Gernot Wolfgang’s Rolling Hills and Jagged Ridges (2009), and as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, James Matheson’s Violin Sonata (2007); West Coast premieres include Steve Reich’s Daniel Variations and Gernot Wolfgang’s Jazz and Cocktails. She is featured on a new recording of Wolfgang’s Rolling Hills and Jagged Ridges on Albany Records, Reich’s Daniel Variations on Nonesuch, a self-released solo cd with Hung-Kuan Chen and the complete Pleyel string quartets with the Enso Quartet on Nonesuch.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) ranks among the world’s top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO has been proclaimed “America’s finest chamber orchestra” (Public Radio International), “LA’s most unintimidating chamber music experience” (Los Angeles magazine), “resplendent” (Los Angeles Times), and “one of the world's great chamber orchestras"(KUSC Classical FM). Performing throughout greater Los Angeles, the Orchestra has made 32 recordings, including, most recently, a 2019 BIS Records release of works for violin and chamber orchestra that features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and the world premiere recording of Pierre Jalbert’s Violin Concerto (a LACO co-commission). LACO, with offices located in downtown Los Angeles, has toured Europe, South America and Japan, and performed across North America. www.laco.org.