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Dreams Play Out In Debut

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By KURT LOFT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 18, 2008

TAMPA - She calls it instant karma.

That's the feeling surrounding a world premiere in Tampa today, when area music students give birth to a new work by noted American composer Augusta Read Thomas.

"The whole project, being presented by young musicians, is wholistic," Thomas says. "The karma is really balanced."

The big moment unfolds when the Patel Conservatory Youth Orchestra performs its Spring Concert at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, which commissioned Thomas' "Dream Threads." Thomas, who for a decade was composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony, will explain her work at an audience talk-back prior to the concert.

"The piece is clearly playable by these young musicians, so you don't need the Boston Symphony to do it," she says. "But it required a lot of rehearsals, so it's difficult. I certainly didn't want to dummy it down."

"Dream Threads" is based on a French fable called "The Magic Thread" about a boy named Peter, who receives a magic silver ball from an old woman in a forest.

Protruding from the ball is a gold thread. When the boy pulls part of the thread from its spool, it propels him forward in time.

As he encounters difficulties through his life, Peter pulls more and more of the thread. But as his life nears its end, he feels empty. By choosing to avoid the challenges and heartaches common to all people, Peter has missed out on what makes life real - and complete. Like Faust, he has traded away his soul.

"I think the story is one that even adults should remember," Thomas says. "It's about learning to enjoy the moment."

One of the country's leading young composers - she was born in 1964 - Thomas has written pieces of varied form and length, from a two-minute "Alleluia" for voices to the "Helios Choros" for orchestra that runs nearly an hour. The Chicago composer has penned dozens of commissions for major orchestras, and a string of global requests will keep her busy well into the next decade.

But "Dream Threads" presented special problems. It has to tell the story of a fable, must work both as a concert piece and as a ballet (a dance version will premiere next year), has to be playable by a youth orchestra and must condense nearly a dozen scenes into less than 20 minutes.

"So it really was a tricky project," Thomas says. "There were all these angles on how it had to be successful."

William Wiedrich, music director of the Patel orchestra, has been rehearsing with the students since January, putting all the pieces together into an organic whole.

"Augusta didn't write simply just because they are young musicians," says Wiedrich, who also is a professor of music at the University of South Florida. "She responded with a real piece of music. It's a very challenging work and a terrific piece of music."

Thomas jumped at the chance to write a new work for the Patel orchestra in Tampa because she believes in encouraging young musicians with music of their own time. But she knew it would be tough - "Dream Threads" required extensive practice in part because a new work offers no reference points.

"Bill Wiedrich has to stand there with wet ink and teach these young musicians how to play it," she says. "They can't go listen to a CD of it."

Along with "Dream Threads," today's concert features "Spring" from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," Stravinsky's "Dance Infernale" from "The Firebird" and Bernstein's "Candide" Overture.

ON STAGE

Patel Conservatory Youth Orchestra Spring Concert
WHAT: World premiere of work by Augusta Read Thomas

WHEN: 2 p.m. today. A talk-back with the composer starts at 1:20 p.m.

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Ferguson Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place,

TICKETS: $12 to $20; (813) 229-7827

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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