On Monday, April 4, 2005 at 8:08:28 AM UTC-7, Premise Checker wrote:

http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=25148
Her Career, Her Recognition and Her Hopes Are Zooming - Composer (and Grammy Nominee) Jennifer Higdon
By David Patrick Stearns
Philadelphia Inquirer - 6 February 2005
Though the Grammy Awards are still seven days away, Jennifer Higdon
has already won far more than she expected from her four nominations.
The Philadelphia-based composer, whose Concerto for Orchestra is cited
for best classical composition, on a disc of her works that is also
nominated for best classical album, has watched her recognition level
zoom since the nominations were announced.
[17]Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra and 'City Scape',
performed by the Atlanta Symphony under Robert Spano (Telarc). (This
title is available at Amazon.com.) Still a relatively new face among nationally known American composers, Higdon, 41, had 60 completed
works when her Concerto for Orchestra was premiered by the
Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch in June 2002 -- and
was a hit from the beginning. Though a Pulitzer Prize finalist, the
piece didn't arrive on disc until last year's "City Scape," whose
title comes from a trio of tone poems inspired by the city of Atlanta.
Robert Spano, Higdon's old friend and schoolmate, led the performance
by the Atlanta Symphony.
Since the Grammy nomination announcement in early December, Higdon has
been receiving inquiries from the world's top conductors -- Daniel
Barenboim and Michael Tilson Thomas, to name two -- interested in
performing her work. Orchestras with long-set programs have been
adding Higdon pieces at the last minute, such as blue cathedral, which
has tallied 50 U.S. performances this season. [Click [18]here to
listen to blue cathedral in streaming audio.] Lately, she's been
turning down commissions at the rate of six to eight a month.
So deeply has Higdon's recognition permeated Philadelphia that one of
the Alamo Car Rental offices she frequents has a small counterside
Higdon shrine taken from recent newspaper clippings.
Part of what inspires such affection is her affability. Her rural
Tennessee upbringing -- during which she played flute in marching band
-- is audible in her accent, even after education at Bowling Green
State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Curtis
Institute of Music, where she teaches part-time.
That personality is reflected in her music, which is sophisticated but something you can love at first listen. Few composers are so good at
writing to order, whether it's the lush, melancholy blue cathedral, a memorial for her deceased brother; the Concerto for Orchestra's
percussion tour-de-force for the Philadelphia Orchestra; or the more "downtown" manner of Zaka, commissioned by the contemporary music
ensemble eighth blackbird. Always, though, Higdon sounds like herself, assembling musical narratives that confidently build and crest and
never meander.
Clockwise from left: Jennifer Higdon, Cheryl Lawson and Beau. (photo
by Candace di Carlo) One key figure behind that success is Higdon's
high school sweetheart and longtime partner, Cheryl Lawson. Higdon
began publishing her own music under the name Lawdon Press out of
necessity when still in school, and with Lawson's good business sense,
that practice continued, giving Higdon the financial stability to
compose more and teach less.
Upcoming major premieres include Leaves of Grass on April 16 with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Next season, she has six new works, including
an oboe concerto for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a percussion
concerto for the Philadelphia Orchestra, a trombone concerto for the Pittsburgh Symphony, and a string quartet (her sixth) for the august
Tokyo Quartet.
How many of the pieces are finished? Higdon stops to think: "None,
actually. I've been sketching on things. The Oboe Concerto is half
done. I guess I'd better go write."...

Concerning the O. concerto:

https://www.wfmt.com/2023/03/05/giancarlo-guerrero-conductor-2

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