Violinist Curtis Stewart With Experiential Orchestra Will Perform Premiere Of Julia Perry's Violin Concerto From 1963 Next Month

Violinist and composer Curtis Stewart, nominated this year for a GRAMMY for his celebrated album On Power, joins Experiential Orchestra (EXO) and Music Director James Blachly as the featured guest soloist with the orchestra on Friday, December 2, 2022 at 8pm at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St.).

Stewart, who co-curated the program with Blachly, will give the world premiere of a new edition of Julia Perry's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which includes the revisions that she made in 1977 to this piece from 1963, by Roger Zahab. The performance will be the first time that Perry's Violin Concerto will be performed in New York, in any edition. The concert will also include Curtis Stewart in music from his album On Power and in Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's Louisiana Blues Strut for solo violin in a new orchestration by David Krivit, and EXO in Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's virtuosic Sinfonietta No. 1 for string orchestra. As part of the experiential nature of the concert, audience members will be invited to sit among the orchestra.

Composer Julia Perry's early career was filled with promise: she spent two summers at the Berkshire Music Center, studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and briefly with Nadia Boulanger, won the Prix de Fountainbleu and two Guggenheim Fellowships, and her Study for Orchestra was performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1965. But tragically, many of her roughly 100 compositions remain unknown. As J. Michele Edwards writes, "Her career was curtailed because of health problems, especially a paralytic stroke affecting her right side in 1971. Her letters reveal her effort to walk, talk, and conduct again. She did learn to write with her left hand and resumed composing; however, she endured tragic emotional and financial difficulties."

Perry's Violin Concerto was composed in 1963 and revised in 1968, but she continued to update the score until 1977, only two years before her death. This performance marks not only the New York premiere of the work, but the world premiere of the newly updated edition, incorporating Perry's extensive revisions to its orchestration.

James Blachly says, "In this concert, EXO is continuing its tradition of collaborating with some of today's most innovative artists to create engaging, immersive concert experiences. Curtis Stewart has been a colleague for more than a decade, and we are so thrilled for him to bring his unique voice and perspective to our audience. We both have been fascinated by the music of Julia Perry and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson for many years, and this concert seemed like the perfect way to amplify Curtis's extraordinary work and vision."

Curtis Stewart says, "The music of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinison and Julia Perry is near and dear to me - the first time I heard of Perkinson was through a mentor - Ashley Horne, who knew "Perky" personally. We both ended up playing his solo work Louisiana Blues Strut on Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage back to back in the program. He would tell me stories about his friend and share anecdotes and attitudes about music making. Julia Perry has occupied a mysterious space in my musical world for a while - for years, Jannina Norpoth from our ensemble PUBLIQuartet has been bringing works of hers, but we have been grappling with the quirks of her publishing (or lack thereof) and unable to perform much of what she originally wrote. I am so excited to be able to finally play one of her original works! These composers both capture the abstract, soulful, individualistic and grounded spirit of late 20th century American composition - pairing these works with my own arrangements of Coleridge-Taylor 24 Negro Melodies and re-workings of Duke Ellington feels like a fitting, if not incomplete, tribute to some of my own musical ancestors."