Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra: Cassie Pilgrim Premieres Chen Yi’s Oboe Concerto
Category: Event Calendar
Dates and Times
- Friday, May 21, 2027 11am
- Saturday, May 22, 2027 7pm
Location & Parking
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
345 Washington St
Details
A journey, years in the making. In 2020, having bonded over a shared cultural heritage rooted in southern China, SPCO Principal Oboe Cassie Pilgrim gave the world premiere of composer Chen Yi's Elegy for Solo Oboe — a mournful response to the ongoing pandemic that we livestreamed from an empty hall. In Melodies from Home, her newest oboe concerto written for Cassie, Chen Yi returns to the universal exploration of family and culture, of connection and nostalgia. Led by conductor Cosette Justo Valdés in her SPCO debut, this program offers an escape into serenity through its soft, woodwind melodies, pastoral strings and wondrous harp.
Melodies from Home was commissioned for The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Cassie Pilgrim, Principal Oboe, Sewell Family Chair, in honor of Gloria Sewell and her extraordinary support of the arts, by Linda Hoeschler and Peter Blyberg.
SPCO Sandbox Composer Residencies are made possible with generous project support from: Amphion Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, David and Karen Olson Family Foundation, Justus and Elizabeth Schlichting, Nara Fund, New Music USA. Chen Yi’s Sandbox Composer Residency is also supported by the Chinese Heritage Foundation.
