BRIDGES
A new work for piano & orchestra by award-winning composer Michael Abels, commissioned for iconoclastic pianist Lara Downes.
BRIDGES captures the journeys that bridge past and future to keep us moving forward, always in pursuit of our elusive American Dream. The piece unfolds as a suite of musical conversations between piano and orchestral soloists, each inspired by a historic milestone in our quest toward the American promise of equal opportunity for all people. Gradually, these strands come together as the full orchestra unites, with the piano as a constant leading voice of hope and possibility.
LARA DOWNES
Pianist Lara Downes has been called “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten” (The Log Journal). An iconoclast and trailblazer, her dynamic work as a sought-after performer, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, a producer, curator, activist, and arts advocate positions her as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene. Ms. Downes’ musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective memory, excavating the broad landscape of American music to create a series of acclaimed performance and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience.
Lara’s close partnerships with prominent composers span genres and generations, with premieres and commissions coming from Jon Batiste, Adolphus Hailstork, Carlos Simon, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Billy Childs, Quinn Mason, Paola Prestini, Timo Andres, Teddy Abrams, Clarice Assad, and many others.
MICHAEL ABELS
Michael Abels is the co-composer with Rhiannon Giddens of the opera OMAR and the scores for the Oscar-winning film GET OUT. The Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, and many more have performed his orchestral works. His work has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, and the Sphinx Organization, and his music has been recorded on the Sony Masterworks and Cedille labels. Upcoming projects include AT WAR WITH OURSELVES for the Kronos Quartet and the Hugh Jackman film BAD EDUCATION for HBO.