Gemma New gets high praise for inaugural Dallas concerts in American Record Guide

Gemma New led her inaugural performance as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in November 2019 (Photo credit: Robert W. Hart )

The American Record Guide has published a glowing review of Gemma New’s 2019 inaugural performance as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Read the review below!

The Dallas Symphony's Principal Guest Conductor Gemma New proved to be a force
By Robin Coffelt
American Record Guide
February 2020

At the November 8-10, 2020 concerts Principal Guest Conductor Gemma New led a transfixing program of favorites by Debussy plus world premieres by Steven Mackey and Salina Fisher. This was part of Dallas’s first Women in Classical Music Symposium, which also included the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors, a variety of panels, and a keynote by soprano Dawn Upshaw.

In Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun New Zealand-born New had a subtle touch with the orchestra and allowed Principal Flute David Buck, with his golden glimmering sound, Principal Oboe Erin Hannigan, and horns David Heyde and Joe Assi to shine.

But it was in the orchestra’s world premiere of Mackey’s Timpani Concerto (A Different Drummer) that the orchestra truly lit up. There was never a dull moment in the piece, but it never seemed over-orchestrated or excessively busy. It was a roller-coaster ride, and all we could do was hang on. Conductor New gave that greatest of gifts to her musicians: a downbeat so clear she could have been a college drum major. Mackey’s concerto has frequent meter changes, and New catalogued each of them with precision and grace. Just 33 years old, she is already proving to be a real presence on the podium, and the DSO seems lucky to have her.

The other Dallas premiere on the program was Rainphase by Salina Fisher, 26. It is an homage to Fisher’s native Wellington, New Zealand. This piece, while certainly listenable, seemed mainly to be an experiment in novel techniques: bowed percussion, a wind machine, lots of raindrop-like pizzicato in the two harps, col legno (striking the strings with the stick of the bow), and string glissando.

I’m looking forward to the next time Gemma New graces the Meyerson’s podium. She is a force.