Project Title: Metamorphosis
Recipient Organization: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Lead Artist: Jake Heggie
Genre and Date Awarded: Performing Arts, 2005
To Be Presented: November 2-November 5, 2006

Composer Jake Heggie is collaborating with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to create a music drama based on the classic tale of Persephone from Ovid’s Metamorphosis. This new work will be a first in the history of Philharmonia Baroque, which is well known for its premieres of recently rediscovered and reconstructed Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic works; and for Mr. Heggie, who has never been invited to write for period instruments. The finished 20-minute music drama will feature a period instrument orchestra with soloists Ute Lemper and Isabel Bayrakdarian. It will premiere in November 2006 in four Bay Area concerts.

As it enters its 25th year, Philharmonia Baroque sees this project as an opportunity to expand the definition of “what period instruments do,” and to remain dynamic as an organization by experimenting with contemporary musical genres.

Development of the piece requires Heggie to work closely with Maestro McGegan and with orchestra members over the course of a year to learn the distinctive expressive qualities of historically accurate instruments. For example, Philharmonia’s horn and trumpet players perform on valveless instruments, which differ greatly from modern instruments; and the theorbo and harpsichord are distinctly Baroque instruments. Heggie writes, “I am eager to discover new projects that combine music and theater in unusual ways. The element of surprise is crucial to art, so finding innovative projects that scare me a bit has become a priority.”

He also will be working closely with librettist Gene Scheer. Mr. Scheer recently worked as librettist with composer Tobias Picker on a new commission for the Metropolitan Opera, an adaptation of Drieser’s “An American Tragedy”. This piece had its premiere on December 2, 2005. It stared Nathan Gunn, Patricia Racette and Susan Graham. James Conlon conducted and Francesca Zambello served as director. This was Mr. Scheer’s second opera with the composer Tobias Picker. Their first collaboration “Therese Raquin”, premiered at the Dallas Opera in November 2001. Since introducing his compositions just a few years ago, Mr. Scheer's songs have been performed by artists including Renee Fleming (with Christoph Eschenbach), Denyce Graves, Sylvia Mcnair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore and Nathan Gunn.

San Francisco-based Jake Heggie is an acclaimed composer with many important compositions to his credit, including the critically acclaimed opera Dead Man Walking for San Francisco Opera, Holy the Firm – Essay for Cello for Oakland East Bay Symphony, The End of the Affair for Houston Grand Opera, and The Moon is Mirror, songs for acclaimed baritone Bryn Terfel. Mr. Heggie has a special talent and penchant for writing vocal works, including a recent song cycle for mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, Winter Roses. His works are performed internationally at major opera houses and concert halls.

Named Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” for 2004, San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has been dedicated to historically-informed performance of Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic music on original instruments since its inception. Founded by harpsichordist and early music pioneer, Laurette Goldberg, in 1981, it has been under the leadership of Music Director Nicholas McGegan since 1985. According to The Los Angeles Times, Philharmonia Baroque has become “an ensemble for early music as fine as any in the world today.” The Orchestra performs a subscription series in four San Francisco Bay Area cities and is regularly heard on tour in the United States and internationally. In 2005, PBO debuted at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, at the BBC Proms and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Among the most-recorded period-instrument orchestras in the United States and internationally, Philharmonia has made 25 highly praised recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Reference Recordings, and BMG; and recently released its first self-produced 2-CD set of music of Alessandro Scarlatti on the Avie label. In 2005, Philharmonia Baroque began releasing a series of archival CDs (Baroque, Classical, and early-Romantic repertoire) exclusively over the Internet in partnership with Magnatune.com.

LEAD ARTIST

Jake Heggie, Composer

Jake Heggie is the composer of the operas Dead Man Walking (libretto by Terrence McNally, 2000) and The End of the Affair (libretto by Heather McDonald, 2004) as well as nearly 200 art songs and works for orchestra and chorus. His works are performed internationally at major opera houses and concert halls, and are championed by some of the world’s most loved singers, including Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham, Joyce DiDonato, Audra McDonald, and Bryn Terfel. He has collaborated with writers Terrence McNalley, Sister Helen Prejean, and Armistead Maupin; conductors Patrick Summers, John DeMain, Nicholas McGegan, Jonathan Sheffer, David Angler, and Yves Abel; directors Joe Mantello, Leonard Foglia, Brad Dalton, and Robin Guarino, to name a few.

Both of Heggie’s operas have been broadcast nationally on National Public Radio, and Dead Man Walking was featured in a nationally telecast award-winning documentary on PBS. Every American production of the opera has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was the winner of G. Schirmer’s national art song competition in 1996 and is the recent recipient of a Meet-the-Composer grant for a new project with Terrence McNally. His commissions include works for the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Colorado, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Ravinia Festival, Chanticleer, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Music of Remembrance, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Credit Suisse, University of Connecticut, and University of Kansas at Lawrence, among others. Soloists who have commissioned Heggie include Frederica von Stade, Jennifer Larmore, Brian Asawa, and Bryn Terfel.

OTHER COLLABORATING ARTISTS

Nicholas McGegan, Music Director/Conductor

Conductor Nicholas McGegan is one of the world’s leading authorities on Baroque and Classical repertoire. Equally at home with modern and period-instrument orchestras, he has been a guest of major orchestras and opera companies around the globe. He is Music Director of San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Artistic Director of Germany’s International Handel Festival, Göttingen, Baroque Series Director of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Artist in Residence of The Milwaukee Symphony, Music Director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and Artistic Director of that orchestra’s summer home, the Killaloe Festival. McGegan regularly appears with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, National (Washington DC), New World (Florida), Philadelphia, Saint Louis, and Toronto. He also has conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Jerusalem, Göteborg, Sydney, and Melbourne symphonies, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In December 2003, he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic.

McGegan has conducted more than 40 operas in Europe and the United States, including all the major Mozart operas, over a dozen by Handel, and works by Monteverdi, Hayden, Gluck, Martin y Soler, Purcell, Landi, Offenbach, and Stravinsky. He made his debut with the Royal Opera House in 1997, conducting the acclaimed world premiere of the Mark Morris production of Rameau’s Platée. He has been Principal Guest Conductor of Scottish Opera and Principal Conductor at Sweden’s Drottningholm Theatre. He also conducted at the English National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Opera. In the summer of 2003, he conducted the first opera ever staged at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Mozart’s Il re pastore.

McGegan’s 70-plus recordings cover a range of opera, orchestral, and chamber music and appear on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Conifer Classics, Classic fM, Decca, Erato, Harmonia Mundi USA, Hungaroton, Reference Recordings, and Virgin Classics labels. He has made over 30 recordings with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, including the world-premiere recording of Handel’s Susanna, Thomas Arne’s Alfred, and suites from Rameau’s Platée and Dardanus.