POSTED September 19, 2011 — Our friends at the KnightArts Blog fund and chronicle stories about great art. Susannah Schouweiler in St. Paul, Minn. posted this article about a recent collaboration between the young composer Nico Muhly, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the all-male chorus Cantus.
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), under the direction of conductor Joana Carneiro, drew a full house to the Ordway on Saturday night. It was opening weekend of the 2011-2012 performance season for this Knight Arts grantee, but that’s not the only reason the performance hall was humming with anticipation. We were all especially eager to hear Cantus, a nationally acclaimed men’s vocal ensemble that would be joining the lauded musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on stage for the evening’s headline performance. That performance was the world premiere of an ambitious new work, “Luminous Body,” jointly commissioned from buzzed-about young composer Nico Muhly by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cantus and the Minnesota Commissioning Club. Read more…