Last year, pianist Willis Delony came to Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s conductor Timothy Muffitt with a can’t-lose request: he’d have a piano concerto commissioned if the BRSO would join him for the premiere. Muffitt accepted, and now his having agreed has paid an extra dividend for the orchestra. The piece, Greg Yasinitsky’s Jazz Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, recently won the American Prize for Musical Composition.
Muffitt described the piece as a new installment in the ongoing interplay between the two genres, and described Delony as a particularly adept interpreter of the piece for exactly that reason: “He’s an extraordinary pianist, at home in both jazz and classical.” The piece is structured to bridge the most famous gap between the genres, jazz’s love of improvisation and the classical tradition of, well, writing down the notes and then playing them. “It’s more like a huge combo, so there’s room for the orchestra to fall back and make room for the soloist’s improvisation.” Within the score, there are also musical cues that alert the orchestral players when the soloist has ended an improvisational passage.
Muffitt said that, beyond the simple pleasure of participating in the premiere of an excellent piece of music, the experience has benefitted the orchestra because that award-winning work will now carry the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s name with it. Furthermore, the award shows the merit in showing leadership in commissioning and performing music by living composers. All artists hope their best works will outlive them—but it’s especially nice if these works start their lives while the artist is around to reap the laurels.
This article originally appeared in our June 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.
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