Second Roche Commission announced in Switzerland on August 21 during The Cleveland Orchestra’s three-concert residency at the Lucerne Festival

The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst to perform world premiere of Dr. Chen’s work at the 2005 Lucerne Festival in second year of partnership between The Cleveland Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival, and Carnegie Hall

CLEVELAND, August 23, 2004 - Chinese-born American composer Chen Yi has been selected to create a new work for The Cleveland Orchestra. Her work will be the second of the Roche Commissions, a three-year initiative involving the commissioning and premieres of works by three different composers that is sponsored by the Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche. The announcement of Chen Yi’s commission was made in Buonas, Switzerland, on August 21, during The Cleveland Orchestra’s three-concert residency at the Lucerne Festival, which featured the world premiere performance of the first Roche Commission, Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Night’s Black Bird, also on August 21. The Lucerne Festival appearances are part of the Orchestra’s first European Festival Tour led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, which is taking place from August 19-27, 2004.

The composers are selected for the Roche Commissions on the consensus of Roche, the Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival and Carnegie Hall. The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst will give multiple performances of each commissioned work, beginning with the world premiere at the Lucerne Festival, followed by the United States premiere at Severance Hall in Cleveland and the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will give the world premiere performance of Dr. Chen’s new work during the Orchestra’s three-concert residency at the Lucerne Festival in August 2005. Subsequently, the Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Most will perform the United States and New York premieres of Dr. Chen’s work early in the 2005-06 season.

Under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra will perform three-concert residencies at the Lucerne Festival in late August of 2004, 2005 and 2006, during annual European Festival Tours. Roche is commissioning a new work for each of the three Lucerne Festival residencies, by a different composer each year.

The Cleveland Orchestra has a long history of appearances at the Lucerne Festival, beginning with a four-concert engagement in 1967 under the direction of George Szell. The Orchestra returned to the Lucerne Festival for single concerts in 1979, 1990, and 1994. In March 1996, the Orchestra performed three concerts at the Lucerne Easter Festival.

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The new work by Chen Yi commissioned by Roche will be the first piece of music by her to be performed by The Cleveland Orchestra. A native of Guangzhou, China, Chen Yi was born into a family of doctors with a strong interest in music. She began violin and piano studies at the age of three, but the Cultural Revolution interrupted her musical progress in 1966. She later studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing from 1978 to 1986, where she earned her Master of Arts degree, as the first Chinese woman to receive this degree in music. She then studied composition with Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky at Columbia University from 1986 to 1993 and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree, with distinction.

The recipient of the Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2001-2004), Chen Yi also has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and other honors, as well as commissions from major foundations and arts organizations. Among Dr. Chen’s works are three symphonies; concertos for piano, cello, flute, and percussion; various other orchestral works; chamber music; and many vocal and choral pieces as well as music for Chinese instrumental orchestras and ensembles.

Dr. Chen became the Lorena Searcey Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor in Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music in 1998. She was a member of the composition faculty of Peabody Conservatory at John Hopkins University in Baltimore from 1996 to 1998 and was Composer-in-Residence with the Women’s Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos Creative Arts Center in San Francisco from 1993 to 1996, supported by Meet the Composer’s New Residencies Program.

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The Cleveland Orchestra’s national and international initiatives, including the European Festival Tour, are sponsored by Jan R. and Daniel R. Lewis. International tours of The Cleveland Orchestra are supported by the Frances Elizabeth Wilkinson International Touring Fund.

Contact: Timothy Parkinson, (216) 231-7473