In addition to serving on the faculty of Monterey Peninsula College for the last 20 years, John Anderson is also the founder, conductor and artistic director of the Ensemble Monterey Chamber Orchestra, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. His wife, Cheryl Anderson, directs the 38-voice Cantiamo! Cabrillo College chorus, which is also celebrating its 25th year. Brainstorming programming ideas for a joint anniversary concert, John recalled that Cheryl had been blown away by a work from contemporary Latvian composer Eriks Ešenvalds called The Long Road that she heard in Cincinnati years ago.
“I ran right up to him,” Cheryl recalls of that concert, “and asked ‘Where do I get your music?’”
Together they commissioned a work called Sunset In My Hand, which will receive its world premiere at Cypress Community Church in Salinas this weekend, and Ešenvalds will be in attendance. “It’s exciting,” John says. “Two choirs along with the orchestra.”
The piece juxtaposes traditional orchestra with unusual instrumentation and songs from the Ohlone tribe, indigenous to the Monterey Bay area. “Like many young composers, Eriks likes to use alternative sound sources almost like ‘found sounds,’” John says. “There’s a Jaws harp and another piece uses a metronome as an instrument – pretty unusual.”
Also scheduled is Piano Concerto from Stephen Tosh, a local composer who passed away last year after partnering with the orchestra often. Ensemble Monterey Chamber Orchestra did nine premieres of Tosh’s works. “We were very sad to see him go,” John says. “He’s sorely missed.”
Apparently Tosh was quite the practical joker, musically, as well. “I’m studying the score now for performance,” John says, “and I found a melodic fragment of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ written in whole-tone scale stuck in there!
“Steve would do stuff like that all the time, just to make you laugh.”
ENSEMBLE MONTEREY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 7:30pm Saturday, April 29. Cypress Community Church, 681 Highway 68, Salinas. $20-$40; free/active military/students under 12. 333-1283, ensemblemonterey.org
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