MVO FOREGROUND COMPOSER 2022-2023: RUTH GIPPS
Planned in 2019 but delayed by the pandemic, the MVO Foreground Composer Series was launched in 2021. In 2018, when the MVO board developed a set of artistic commitments, Artistic Director Ho-Yin Kwok had already programmed George Walker’s Lyric for Strings and two dances from Elizabeth Maconchy’s Puck Fair for the following season. In the following season MVO performed works by Germaine Tailleferre and Ethel Smyth. The board wanted to do more and began discussing ways to pursue the most significant of the artistic commitments: “representation of diverse aspects of the human experience, such as culture, era, gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and religion.” Kwok proposed focusing on one underrepresented composer each season, playing their work throughout, pointing out that Beethoven’s work is beloved not only because it’s good but also because audiences have heard more of his work than one of his pieces played only once. The board couldn’t have been more enthusiastic, and the Foreground Composer Series was born. When it finally arrived, the inaugural season featured the work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and the next featured Ruth Gipps. MVO musicians and audiences alike get the irreplacable experience of becoming familiar with the composer’s sound over the course of the season. It is no small effort to carry out this commitment. Music scores and parts aren’t as accessible, for example. But there’s no question that it’s worth it. It is a privilege to be part of U.S. and regional premieres, and musicians have reported that they have recognized even pieces MVO didn’t perform as being by a Foreground Composer whose work they had never known before their inclusion in the series. Representation is what makes recognition possible.
Click the link below to learn more about Ruth Gipps from BBC Music Magazine:
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Song of Orchestra, op. 33
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