Praise for the World Premiere of Valerie Coleman’s “Giants of Light” in New York Classical Review

National Youth Orchestra of USA brings energy, excitement to well-balanced program
by George Grella
New York Classical Review
July 15, 2023

Marking its tenth year, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America is as fine a group as ever. In a way, that’s no surprise, as this orchestra is an all-star outfit with young musicians drawn from the whole country. But there is substantial turnover each year as the kids grow older (the orchestra is for ages 16-19), and despite the obvious sheer talent to be found, the musicians  and a new conductor have to bring together a touring program from scratch.

Friday night in Carnegie Hall, they offered a well-selected one: a concert overture by Valerie Coleman, Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto—played by Gil Shaham—and the Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz. With Andrew Davis conducting, this year’s group of teenagers put in another sensational performance.

This was excitingly present and compelling from the first notes of Coleman’s Giants of Light. Commissioned by Carnegie Hall for this orchestra, this was the world-premiere performance. Coleman is an heir to the great mid-20th century American orchestral music, and Giants of Light opens with the classic, inspiring sound of wide open chords, gleaming textures, and a bounding, striding feeling. In the middle of this short work there was a passage that balanced that optimistic fanfare and mood with a more ambiguous lyricism, lovely and bittersweet, with short phrases from woodwinds and brass. Tender playing from the orchestra gave this a rich sound. This is a great American music style that exists outside of polemics and intellectual fashions and speaks to the possibilities and frustrations of this country, and Coleman is showing herself as its contemporary standard-bearer.

The audience responded with near ecstasy, and of course needed an encore.

Read the full article here.