Jonathan Leshnoff brings new music to Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA - February 17, 2013 (WPVI) -- The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is staging the world premiere of a brand new piece of music.

Call it the Rite of Spring every year, the Chamber Orchestra, in an effort to promote contemporary music, commissions a new work and premieres it in March. They allow the commissioned composer to choose the other pieces that will be played with it in the program.

Peter Gistelinck of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia said, "This time we have a given a commission to Jonathan Leshnoff, and Jonathan Leshnoff is actually one of my favorite contemporary composers."

Leshnoff is a young American post-modernist composer who calls Baltimore home.

"When you listen to his music, it's so accessible, but at the same time the quality remains, remains very high. His piece is a cello concerto that will feature Russian soloist Nina Kotova," said Gistelinck..

Gistelinck continues, "She's an amazing soloist, she composes too. That's a very nice combination. Then you have the dialogue between the soloist and the composer that writes your piece.She's an amazing soloist, she composes too. That's a very nice combination and then you have the dialogue between the soloist and the composer that writes your piece."

Leshnoff is pairing his premiere with The Serenade for Strings by fellow American composer George Antheil and Mendelssohn's first symphony, that he wrote when he was 15- years-old.

"It's actually the first time that the Chamber orchestra of Philadelphia will perform Mendelssohn's first symphony. The nice thing about Mendelssohn, he basically came out of a very, very wealthy family and he had his own little orchestra that was paid by his father and whatever he wrote, they performed it," added Gistelinck.

The concert is set for March 3rd and 4th in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theatre. For tickets, go to The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

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