THE CHALLENGE: AN INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO PROGRAMMING

If you were the conductor or manager of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and were charged with devising a festival of music from the past hundred years, you would probably look first at the American contribution of Gershwin, Copland, Schuman, Bernstein, Piston, Cage. Carter, Reich, Adams, Corigliano, del Tredici and Danielpour, and then put them into context alongside Hindemith, Bartok, Stravinksy, Schoenberg, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Berio, Britten, Tippett, Gorecki, Paart, Takemitsu, Ades, Turnage, in fact you would take a world overview. With a medium such as the wind ensemble, still a minority love, still way down below symphony orchestra, opera, chamber music, jazz, R&B and folk in terms of critical interest and popular acclaim, we desperately need this international approach in our repertoire and in our performance standards. We need as Gunther Schuller puts it “to get out of academia and enter the real world of international music.”

My programme for a Sunday afternoon concert on February 12th 2012 was primarily “on the light side”, carefully selected in conjunction with Commander Kenneth Megan and Chief Warrant Officer Richard Wyman, with the intention of introducing to the audience in New London a range of unfamiliar music and composers from Europe and the USA.

Tim Reynish being appointed an honorary US Coast Guard by Commander Kenneth Megan