Bruce MacCombie’s Light Upon the Turning Leaf in World Premiere at Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival

On August 18 the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival on Long Island presents the world premiere of Bruce MacCombie’s new septet Light Upon the Turning Leaf. The work marks the second commission for MacCombie by the festival in as many years and is performed by flutist and festival artistic director Marya Martin, clarinetist Anthony McGill, bassoonist Judith LeClair, violinist Stefan Jackiw, violist Beth Guterman, cellist Edward Arron, and pianist Shai Wosner. MacCombie comments:

The title reflects my appreciation for light and energy of the sort which can be sometimes gained by meditation as well as by music and poetry, all of which can help to provide a sense of wholeness, strength and well being to life’s journey, despite the challenges of aging and of coping with ailments along this journey’s path.

This work contains melodic and harmonic materials which are related to two earlier pieces, Still Life for woodwind quintet and Samsara Rounds for large orchestra. As in those pieces, a meditative opening leads to a slightly off-kilter tune taking a rather obsessive journey through various instrumental combinations of the ensemble.

This past spring MacCombie was honored by the Yale School of Music with a Cultural Leadership Award for his distinguished accomplishments as a composer, administrator, and teacher, including his years of teaching at Yale from 1975 to 1980. In January, 2010, his newest orchestral work Samsara Rounds, which was given its premiere by James DePreist and the Juilliard Orchestra in 2009, was performed at the University of Michigan School of Music under Christopher Kendall.

Learn more on the music of Bruce MacCombie by visiting his Composer Profile.

Information about the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival can be found at www.bcmf.org.

Learn more on MacCombie’s Cultural Leadership Award at www.umass.edu.

Bruce MacCombie
Samsara Rounds (2008)
for orchestra
pic.0.2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn-4.3.3.1-timp.perc-amp pno-str
14'

Light Upon the Turning Leaf (2010)
for flute, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and piano
10'