The Gathering Note reports that composer Aaron Jay Kernis will be in residence with the Seattle Symphony for two weeks in an upcoming season (not yet specified).
This enthusiasm was on full display Sunday. In a surprise for the audience and I am sure a surprise for the orchestra, Aaron Jay Kernis, whose Too Hot Toccata [written in 1996] started the program, took the podium to conduct his own work. Kernis reveled to the audience that he was in town hammering out the specifics of a two week residency with the Seattle Symphony and sat in on the Sunday’s rehearsal. According to Radcliffe, while the band went through the piece, Kernis gradually began inserting himself until Radcliffe suggested he conduct the piece. Kernis did just that.
He was in Seattle this past weekend conducting his own piece Too Hot Toccata with the Seattle Youth Symphony.
The Oregon Symphony will perform the Toccata on its 2008-2009 classical series.