For Immediate Release
Contact: BMOP
617.363.0396
Boston, MA (January 10, 2006)

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), under artistic director and conductor Gil Rose, presents its 8th annual "Boston ConNECtion" concert on Saturday, January 21. BMOP is one of the few professional orchestras in the United States dedicated exclusively to performing and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Since its founding in 1996, BMOP has programmed 46 concerts of contemporary orchestral music, including 37 world premiere performances, released ten world premiere recordings, and won eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming.

As New England Conservatory's Affiliate Orchestra for New Music, BMOP has a history of performing and promoting works by Boston-based composers, and once a year honors those associated with the conservatory's prestigious composition department. This year's concert features Lee Hyla's Lives of the Saints with renowned new music soloist Mary Nessinger, mezzo-soprano. Hyla composed his 90-minute work for Nessinger, who performed the premiere in 2000 with Boston Musica Viva. Nessinger and BMOP will reprise Lives of the Saints with Hyla's At Suma Beach, also composed for Nessinger, on January 28 on the University of Pittsburgh's prominent Music on the Edge series. Following the performance, both works will be recorded for commercial release in Fall 2006 as part of BMOP's aggressive recording program.

Lives of the Saints is an extended song for solo voice and small ensemble comprising texts made from several hagiographies, making it one of the newest additions to a long history of music that attempts to navigate humans and their interactions with the divine. Gil Rose states, "It's always great to prepare and perform and record an important substantial new work. Lee Hyla's Lives of the Saints is just such a work. It's a great honor to bring a composer of such stature to Pittsburgh audiences." This pair of concerts and the subsequent recording are part of an ongoing collaboration between Hyla and BMOP. Their first CD together, Trans, was released in February 2004 by New World Records to widespread critical acclaim, including favorable reviews in all of the major record industry publications and The New York Times.

Lee Hyla, a Bostonian, is often characterized as a "cross-over" composer who combines elements of jazz, hardcore classical avant-garde, and rock music into his own personal idiom. Hyla has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including a Guggenheim fellowship and the Rome Prize. Most recently he was Resident Composer at the American Academy in Rome in the fall of 2004 and was a composition fellow at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France for the winter and spring of 2005. He is Chair of the Composition Department at New England Conservatory.

"Boston ConNECtion" also features competition winners Jonathan Sokol, whose score Symphony for Strings was selected from the 8th annual NEC/BMOP competition contest, and violist Nicholas Bootiman, whose performance of Kryzstof Penderecki's Concerto for Viola won the 7th annual NEC/BMOP concerto competition.

"Boston ConNECtion" begins at 8 pm on Saturday, January 21, 2005 at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory (30 Gainsborough St., corner of Huntington Ave.) in Boston, MA. Pre-concert "Program Notes" with Lee Hyla and Jonathan Sokol begin at 7 pm in the hall and is free for all ticket holders. Ticket prices are $10 for students with valid ID. Regular admission tickets are $19, $28, $38 based on seat selection. Seniors and members of partnering organizations receive a 10% discount. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (617) 363-0396 or visit www.bmop.org. Jordan Hall is handicapped accessible.

Press please note: Current high-resolution photographs of Gil Rose, BMOP, and featured composers and guest artists are available for download. Please use these images instead of any already on file.

Calendar Submission / At A Glance

What: Boston ConNECtion

Who: Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, Artistic Director and Conductor; Mary Nessinger, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Bootiman, viola

When: Saturday, January 21, 2006 at 8 pm
Pre-concert Program Notes with Lee Hyla and Jonathan Sokol at 7 pm

Where: Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory (30 Gainsborough St., corner of Huntington Ave.)

Program:

Jonathan Sokol Symphony for Strings (2003)
Selected score from the 8th annual NEC/BMOP composition contest

Kryzstof Penderecki Concerto for Viola (1983)
Featuring Nicholas Bootiman, Winner of the 7th annual NEC/BMOP concerto competition

Lee Hyla Lives of the Saints (complete) (2000)

Tickets: $10 for students with ID / $19 / $28 / $38. Available at www.bmop.org and (617) 363-0396

Information: For more information, please call (617) 363-0396 or visit www.bmop.org.

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is one of the few professional orchestras in the country dedicated exclusively to performing and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Gil Rose, BMOP's mission is to illuminate the connections that exist between contemporary music and contemporary society by reuniting composers and audiences in a shared concert experience.

BMOP is generously supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer and other private foundations, and individuals who share our interest in the future of orchestral music.