Emily Marvosh- alto

As we eagerly await the opportunity to premiere Julia Wolfe's piece for a live audience, I’ve been thinking a lot about how musicians can influence the course of new music. 

I recently read about John de Lancie, who was the principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Symphony. A major worldwide event dramatically changed his career and the musical landscape in America — World War II. In 1942 he enlisted in the army, and as the war was drawing to a close three years later, his unit was one of many fanning out through Germany, occupying residents’ houses for use as quarters and bases of operation. One elderly owner refused to leave his home, identifying himself as “Richard Strauss, the composer of Rosenkavalier and Salome.” Luckily for Strauss, his work was known and beloved by the musicians in de Lancie’s unit, and the composer was permitted to remain. The Americans often visited for long musical conversations, during which de Lancie once asked Strauss if he had ever considered writing an oboe concerto. After a curt “no,” Strauss changed the subject. 

However, only months later, Strauss found himself putting the finishing touches on none other than an oboe concerto, adding a dedication: “Oboe concerto- 1945- suggested by an American Soldier”. 

John de Lancie was far from home, far from the career for which he had planned and sacrificed so much, and he had probably wondered hundreds of times whether he would ever perform again for a live audience in Pittsburgh - or whether he would return to America at all. But he was still a musician, even if he was working a different job, in a different world. His curiosity and love of music inspired one of the 20th century’s great composers to create a new work, an excellent work. I hope Her Story will continue to inspire us for the next 75 years, as does the story of Strauss’s Oboe concerto. 

That is the spirit, if not the letter, of commissioning, and if you are one of the fortunate whose income has remained steady throughout this pandemic, I hope you’ll reach out in support of organizations like Lorelei that commission new, powerful works of art, so that, when we can come back to performances, as John de Lancie eventually did, there is a brand new piece of music just waiting to be given a voice.