Press Releases

Prestigious Koussevitzky Commission to Boston Composer Tison Street and Boston Classical Orchestra

February 16, 2004--Boston, MA -- Boston composer Tison Street has been commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress and the Koussevitzky Foundation Inc. to write a work to be premiered by the Boston Classical Orchestra, Steven Lipsitt, Music Director.

Tentatively titled "Four Colonial Scenes", the work will premiere on November 19 and 21, during the orchestra's 25th season in the fall of 2004 at historic Faneuil Hall. Street's composition is one of five 25th anniversary BCO commissions and one of six Koussevitzky awards announced this week by the Library of Congress. The other composers receiving BCO commissions are Robert Livingston Aldridge, Kenneth Amis, Norman Bolter, and Lawrence Wolfe.

Steven Lipsitt said of the commission: "We are excited to have Tison Street create a new work for the Boston Classical Orchestra audiences to enjoy in Faneuil Hall alongside masterpieces by Mozart and Beethoven, and pleased and proud that the Koussevitzky Foundations share our enthusiasm for this project."

"The opportunity to compose a work for the Boston Classical Orchestra's twenty-fifth anniversary season," Street told the judges, "is a very welcome one. I have much fondness for the orchestra as I used to be one of their violinists and personally know most of the musicians. Also, I always felt a certain joy in performing in Bulfinch's beautiful Faneuil Hall, historic seat of the town meetings that led, in part, to the American Revolution."

The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation of New York, founded in 1950 and 1942, respectively, perpetuate Koussevitzky's lifelong efforts to encourage contemporary composers. Serge Koussevitzky was appointed conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1924 and served in that post for 25 years. He died in 1951. Works commissioned by him and the two foundations include established masterpieces such as Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes" and Béla Bartõk's "Concerto for Orchestra." Commissions are awarded annually on a competitive basis and are open to performing organizations or individuals and to composers without regard to national origin or affiliation.

Other composers and organizations receiving Koussevitzky commissions are William Kraft and Earplay; Philippe Leroux and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players; Nicholas Maw and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra; David Taddie and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and Barbara White and the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston.

Tison Street

Composer Tison Street was born in Boston and received degrees from Harvard University. His honors include the Naumberg Recording Award, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, among many others. Street has taught at Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley and Boston University. Many of the country's leading orchestras have programmed Street's music, including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.