“VAUDEVILLE IN TEAL:: Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani is the soloist with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in two performances of a work by Julian Grant at Richardson Auditorium. (Photo by Kaja Smith)
Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani will perform the world premiere of a new concerto by Princeton-based composer Julian Grant at Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) concerts March 7-8 at Richardson Auditorium. The work, titled Vaudeville in Teal, is a co-commission of the PSO and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
Curated by Music Director Rossen Milanov, the upcoming program showcases additional soloists through Viet Cuong’s Extra(ordinarily) Fancy featuring PSO principal oboe Lillian Copeland and oboist Erin Gustafson, and the full version of Igor Stravinsky’s neo-classical ballet Pulcinella featuring soprano Aubry Ballarò, tenor Nicholas Nestorak, and bass-baritone Hunter Enoch. Milanov will conduct both performances.
“I’m thrilled to be offering audiences the excitement of this world premiere performance,” said Milanov. “Julian Grant is a gifted composer with ties to Princeton and our orchestra, and Mahan is an incredible artist who has single-handedly brought the harpsichord into the modern age. I played the oboe in my youth, so Viet Cuong’s imaginative work for two oboes is something I look forward to personally, and I’ve been wanting to conduct the complete Pulcinella here for some time. There is much to love in this joyful program.”
Viet Cuong recalls his love of Baroque-era oboe concertos and explores the instrument’s unique sound possibilities with Extra(ordinarily) Fancy. Grant’s Vaudeville in Teal for harpsichord and small orchestra was written with Esfahani in mind, and is the third of Grant’s works to be performed by the PSO. Stravinsky wrote his 21-movement ballet Pulcinella, based on a commedia dell’arte figure who was a notorious trickster, to uplift a war-weary, post-World War I audience.
Grant has composed 20 operas of various lengths and sizes which have been performed by English National Opera, The Royal Opera, Almeida Opera, Mecklenburgh Opera and Tétè-a-Tétè. He has won the National Opera Association of America’s New Opera prize and been nominated for an Olivier Award. In 2012, his Cultural Olympiad commission Hot House, devised by Gareth Malone, was premiered at the Royal Opera House. His chamber opera, with librettist Mark Campbell The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare, a co-commission with Music Theatre Group and Boston Lyric Opera, premiered in Boston November 2017, and was nominated for an International Opera Award in 2018. During the pandemic he wrote a Suite for Solo Viola, a commission from the Harvard Musical Association for the 50th anniversary of Emmanuel Music – Salt, and Scarlatti in Soweto, a further commission from Buskaid after the widely performed Sancho’s Dance Mix (2014). Jump Cuts was premiered by the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in 2022, and he recently completed Vaudeville in Teal, for harpsichord and small orchestra for Mahan Esfahani. He was Director of Music at St. Paul’s Girls’ School, London, a post previous occupied by Gustav Holst and Vaughan-Williams.
Esfahani has established himself as a new pioneer of the harpsichord. Following studies in musicology and history at Stanford University he completed his studies with Zuzana Růžičková in Prague. He was the first and only harpsichordist to be a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010), a Borletti-Buitoni prize winner (2009), and a nominee for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year (2014, 2015, and 2017). In 2022, he became the youngest recipient of the Wigmore Medal, in recognition of his significant contribution and longstanding relationship with London’s Wigmore Hall. Born in Tehran in 1984 and raised in the United States, he lived in Milan and then London for several years before taking up residence in Prague.
Single tickets start at $40; there are also cost-saving ticket packages available. Youths 5-17 receive a 50% discount with an adult purchase. Visit princetonsymphony.org or call (609) 497-0020.