Philip Glass's involvement with New Music Festival 'a huge deal' for Winnipeg symphony conductor

Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate's excitement is audible as he talks about bringing new music and composers to Manitoba audiences.

"People forget that you constantly hear new music — it's nothing intellectual," the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra conductor and musical director, who also acts as artistic director of the WSO's New Music Festival, said in an interview with CBC's Information Radio.

"It's so emotional and hits you right in the heart, and that's what we're bringing this year to the festival with those composers."

Celebrated American composer Philip Glass features heavily in the program for this year's festival, an annual event focused on bringing modern music to Winnipeg audiences — including performing at the festival himself.

Glass will join three other pianists in performing his Complete Piano Études as part of the festival on Jan. 28. 

And on Feb. 1, New York's JACK Quartet will perform the world premiere of Glass's String Quartet No. 8. The WSO co-commissioned the new work with NYC's Carnegie Hall.

The premiere is a "huge deal," Mickelthwate said.

"[Glass] for me is like the Beethoven of our time. People forget, he's been around for 50 years in a way, since the '60s. And it was revolutionary."

'He's the godfather'

Glass and other contemporary American composers pushed music in a simpler, more emotional direction, he said.

"In the '20s, '30s, in Europe, in Germany, everything became more complex in the writing of contemporary music," said Mickelthwate, who was born in Germany.

"After the Second World War, Germany got even more, like, very intellectual writing. And here in North America, [there was] a whole other direction. And in the '60s, this whole movement started with Philip Glass and Steve Reich — minimalism."

For anyone unfamiliar with what minimalist music sounds like, Mickelthwate points to most television and film music for examples.

"When you think of Game of Thrones, House of Cards, all those TV shows — that music, that emotional music, that is minimalism. And it's only because of Philip Glass. He's the godfather."

Bringing Glass to the Winnipeg New Music Festival marks the culmination of five years of effort. Mickelthwate credits businessman and arts patron Michael Nesbitt with securing the deal.

In addition to performing, the composer will attend the festival's opening night concert — a Jan. 27 performance of his 11th Symphony, which Mickelthwate will conduct. The evening will also include the world premiere of a new orchestral work by Canadian visual artist and composer Michael Snow.

Glass and Snow knew each other and worked together in the 1960s, and the two will participate in a post-concert panel discussion.

"It will be huge," Mickelthwate said.

The same evening will also see the premiere of a new work by WSO composer-in-residence Harry Stafylakis. Titled A Parable for End Times, it's a musical setting for a text written by Winnipeg fantasy author Steven Erikson.

Icelandic composers

Icelandic composers also feature prominently in the festival. Hilmar Hilmarsson, who has composed for Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros, will present the world premiere of a new major work for orchestra and choir.

"It's very different, very minimal — beautiful landscape, very calm, Renaissance-like," Mickelthwate said.

He has also begun preparing to conduct a marathon performance of a two-hour orchestral accompaniment to Dawson City: Frozen Time, a film by American filmmaker Bill Morrison, on the Saturday after the start of the festival as a special "post-festival" event.

This will be Mickelthwate's last year as artistic director for the Winnipeg New Music Festival. He has taken a job as music director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic after 12 years with the WSO.

"It's great. I mean, I'm sad, but it's also really awesome," he said.

The Winnipeg New Music Festival runs Jan. 27 to Feb. 2.