Composer Dave Ragland and librettist Selda Sahin won The Atlanta Opera’s second annual 96 Hour Opera Project. Their work, Steele Roots, profiled Carrie Steele Logan, a 19th century Black woman who founded the orphanage Carrie Steele-Pitts Home in Atlanta.
A June 12 concert at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College featured works by the five finalists in the competition. It also included a preview of Forsyth County is Flooding (With the Joy of Lake Lanier), a new work commissioned from the 2022 winners of the competition, Marcus Norris and Adam Ebo.
The 96-Hour Opera Project is a composition contest where five teams of composers and librettists are selected and given two weeks to write an original 10-minute work. Each team was invited to select a groundbreaking Black Georgian to profile in their composition.
“The rich history of Atlanta rests not only in the lives of the most famous but in the courage and strength of even the most unacclaimed people,” Tomer Zvulun, the opera’s managing and artistic director, said in a press release. “Our goals are to lift up the inspirational stories that reflect the multicultural history of Atlanta, to amplify the voices of a diverse group of talented emerging creators and to share these new creations with Atlanta music lovers.”
Ragland and Sahin received the $10,000 Antinori Foundation Grand Prize and a commission from The Atlanta Opera to write a chamber opera. The remaining eight finalists received a $1,000 honorarium.
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Georgia Symphony announces 2023-24 season
The Georgia Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2023-24 schedule, the 73rd season in its history. The season will open October 28 with a program called “An Early Grave,” focused on works by composers who died young.
The symphony will return February 24 with Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet and the second symphony of Brahms. The soloist will be the orchestra’s principal clarinetist, Justin Stanley.
The classical season will close May 18 with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The soloists for the performance will be selected from a national competition.
The classical series will be at the Bailey Performance Center.
In addition, the orchestra will perform a Holiday Pops concert with a chorus on December 2 at the Marietta Performing Arts Center. A gospel mass program will also be presented at a date and venue to be announced.
There also will be two jazz programs: a tribute to the music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David on February 17, and a celebration of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Vanguard Orchestra on April 13. Both will be at the Strand Theatre.
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Georgia Philharmonic hires new music director
The Georgia Philharmonic has named Tamara Dworetz as its new music director.
Dworetz is a native of Atlanta and has conducted the Orchestre de Paris, the Paris Mozart Orchestra, Boston Pops, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony and Mankato Symphony.
She has served as assistant conductor for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra de Paris, Gurzenich Orchestra Cologne and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Dworetz was featured in the documentary film Maestra, which chronicled the 2022 La Maestra Conducting Competition for Women Conductors in Paris. She was one of the competition’s six semifinalists.
“I am very excited to begin working with Georgia Philharmonic,” Dworetz said in a press release. “I am impressed with the community support for the orchestra and the talented musicians who care deeply about its future. I feel we’ll achieve great things together.”
Dworetz was one of three finalists who were guest conductors during the 2022-23 season. “Tamara rose to the top of the musicians’ list with her ability to quickly adapt her style around soloists, communicate musical phrasing, dynamics and articulation with her baton,” Georgia Philharmonic President Greg Selig said in a press release. “She delivered a stunning performance of symphonic dances from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and worked collaboratively and constructively behind the scenes with musicians and board members alike. The musicians are excited by Tamara’s mantra of creative energy mixing the music we love with selected new works and collaborations.”
Georgia Philharmonic, based in Roswell, is in its 39th season and performs five concerts annually at Lassiter Concert Hall in Marietta.
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Alpharetta Symphony sets 10th concert season
The Alpharetta Symphony will perform six concerts in its 2023-24 season, starting off September 25 with a “Rhapsody in Blue Turns 100” program at the Alpharetta First United Methodist Church.
The classical season continues November 3 with a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and then Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 on April 19.
The season will include a celebration of women in music on February 23 and a Memorial Day concert May 27 at the Brooke Street Park. A holiday program will be performed December 15 at a venue to be determined.
The symphony was founded in 2014 and is under the artistic leadership of Music Director Grant Gilman.
