Koussevitzky Music Foundations Commissions

The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundations has announced the recipients of the Koussevitzky Commissions. These highly sought after prizes are also co-sponsored by a performing arts organization which will give each new work its premiere.

The selected composers and their co-sponsoring groups are:

John Aylward (Washington Square Contemporary Music Society)
Anthony Cheung (Talea Ensemble)
Jason Eckardt (NOVA Chamber Music Series)
Agustín Fernández (Momenta Quartet)
Jennifer Higdon (Cypress String Quartet)
Laura Kaminsky (St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Philharmonic)
Harold Meltzer (San Francisco Chamber Orchestra)
Benoît Mernier (Pro Arte Quartet)

Serge Koussevitzky, the founder of the organization and the commissioning project, was the Russian émigré conductor of the Boston Symphony from 1924 to 1949. His tenure with the Boston Symphony was a period of great growth and expansion for the organization; often refered to as the Golden Age of the Orchestra. While there, he built up the reputation of the orchestra to become one of the most revered in America. Under his leadership the Boston Symphony also founded the renowned Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts; the summer home of the Boston Symphony where they present many outdoor concerts during the festival. Along with the festival is the Tanglewood Music Institute which serves as a summer music academy for young performers, conductors, and composers. The list of alumni and professors who have been involved with the festival since its founding represents many of the most important practitioners of music from the last 70 years. Tanglewood was also the site of many of the premieres of the works that the Koussevitzky Foundations commissioned.

Throughout his career at the Boston Symphony, Koussevitzky was a great promoter of new works, often commissioning new works, many of which have become considered some the 20th-century’s greatest compositions. Prior to his appointment in Boston, Koussevitzky often programmed contemporary works for his performances in Paris and the Soviet Union, including the premieres of works such as Honegger’s Pacific 231, Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no.1, and Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments

In 1942, in memory of his late wife, Natalie Koussevitzky, he created the Koussevitzky Music Foundations with the intent of supporting the creation of new works and helping to finance their performance. One early result of this Foundation was Benjamin Britten’s operatic masterpiece Peter Grimes. The work subsequently had its American premiere at the 1946 Tanglewood Festival lead by the young Koussevitzky conducting protégé, Leonard Bernstein. Later commissions included Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, Copland’s Symphony no. 3, and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie.

For the 50th Anniversary Celebrations of the Boston Symphony, Koussevitzky commissioned many notable works, including Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, Prokofiev’s Symphony no. 4, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, and Hindemith’s Konzertmusik, as well as works by Roussel, Respighi, Prokofiev and Honegger.

In honor of this impressive musical figure, the Koussevitzky Foundations continues his work and support of new music with new commissions each year. More information about each of the composers and co-sponsoring foundations in this round of commissions as well as information about the Koussevitzky Foundations itself can be found at the bottom of this article.