LYNDONVILLE — The Vermont Symphony Orchestra's 2011 Made in Vermont Music Festival tour premieres the commissioned work "Dark Mountains" by composer Robert Paterson.
Tonight, the tour stops at Lyndon State College in Vermont. On Friday, the tour moves to Bellows Falls Opera House and then to the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph on Saturday, the Woodstock Town Hall Theater on Sunday and the Castleton State College Fine Arts Center on Monday.
Paterson is in his third year of a Music Alive Composer in Residence with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, sponsored by Meet the Composer and the League of American Orchestras.
"It's a pretty big deal to get it," said Paterson, who lives in New York City. "It's one of the few times in the history they allowed someone to do it for three years. Usually, it's a year. Vermont is the kind of community that figures out what is going on with everyone else. The Vermont Symphony Orchestra got wind of what I was doing with the VYO. I had a conversation with their composer, David Ludwig. They decided to commission me."
Paterson is the 2011 Composer of the Year, an award given by the Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie Hall. His other honors include the Copland Award, Brian Israel Prize and winning the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition. He is the founder and artistic director of the American Modern Ensemble.
He and his wife, Victoria, a violinist, played with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s.
"It almost seems like a distant memory," Paterson said. "It's interesting. Back when I lived there, I was mostly a percussionist. Now, I'm entirely a composer. That's what I do. My career has changed."
When the Vermont Symphony Orchestra commissioned a work, Paterson was given a certain length and told the number of instruments he could write for the Made in Vermont series.
"It's nice not to be completely hemmed in," he said.
When he told the orchestra his theme, "Dark Mountains," there was a little concern.
"They thought I wrote something horrible, dark and depressing. There's a darkness to part of the piece but not the whole thing," Paterson explained.
He imagines the darkness as seen in an Ansel Adams black-and-white photograph of high peaks. There are no hidden meanings or sociopolitical undertones.
"It's all very much to deal with visual images and the experience of driving through the mountains," Paterson said. "Vermonters drive a lot. It's part of living there. Everything is so spread about. They have the luxury of driving through these mountains. You see it in a different way than tourists see it. You're not always driving during the day."
There's an inside with musicians, who tend to drive across the state in the middle of the night, on twisty, mountainous roads.
"It's a little scary. It's fun to have that connection with some of the musicians," he said.
Principal timpanist Jeremy Levine asked Paterson to write something good specifically for him. Principal bassist Luke Baker requested a fun part.
"It's great to make them happy," he said.
"Dark Mountains" is one work with three connecting parts. There are no stops, but the sections have a different weight.
"The first movement is more placid in sound. I compare it to looking out at the forest or the mountain while you sit on the back porch. It's a calm, serene feeling.
"The second part, I imagine driving through the mountains on some twisty roads and the sky is turning dark. The second part is more driving and energetic than the first part," Paterson said.
The third part has a calm overtone like the first section.
"It's nighttime. You see moonlight shining through the trees. The first and third part end with a cricket sound. The last part, you hear birds chirping. It will not sound exactly like birds. It alludes to that," he said.
Conductor Jamie Laredo is a violinist, and Paterson took note.
"I was being extra careful to write really good string parts," he said. "I paid special attention. Not that I wouldn't usually. I didn't focus on the brass as much."
Paterson will attend every Made in Vermont concert.
"That's part of the deal," he said.
Email Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Dwarfing Around With Ray Winstone
VH1's 'Single Ladies' Launches Season 2
RPatz Swaps Cullen for Cronenberg
Stars Crowd Red Carpet for AmfAR
Knick's Anthony on NY Life, Linsanity, New Role
Zefron Gets Eroticised
Kristen Stewart 'On the Road' to Cannes
Mads Mikkelsen on 'The Hunt' in Cannes
Brad Pitt Dispels Wedding Date Rumors at Cannes
Gerard Butler: the Good, the Bad and the Cannes
ShowBiz Minute: Gibb, Billboard, Smith
Robin Gibb of Bee Gees Dies at 62
Raw Video: Will Smith Slaps Journalist
Wes Anderson Makes His Cannes Debut
Tony Nominee Josh Young on Judas Role in 'JCS'
Jaime King's Southern Belle Secrets
ShowBiz Minute: Summer, Gaga, Beckham
Fans Pay Tribute to Donna Summer
Glenn Frey on New Solo Record, Eagles
Disco Queen Donna Summer Dies at 63
