Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra Premieres New Work by Local Composer
The Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra (UVSO) will premiere two movements of a new piece, Upper Valley Seasons, composed by a member of the orchestra and commissioned specially for the UVSO in honor of Upper Valley Music Center’s 30th anniversary. The UVSO will perform the concert twice this spring, first at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in the afternoon of Sunday, April 26, and then at the Lebanon Opera House on the evening of Wednesday, April 29, under the direction of conductor Mark Nelson. Concert details and tickets can be found online at uvmusic.org.
Upper Valley Seasons is a clarinet concerto composed by Pablo Santiago Chin, a professor at the Longy School of Music at Bard College and a lecturer at Dartmouth, who also happens to be the UVSO’s principal clarinetist. Chin is a prolific composer whose music has been performed by ensembles and artists across the globe, but he’s found a valuable community here in the Upper Valley through the orchestra. “I joined the orchestra when I moved to the Upper Valley, in part because, coming from big cities, I was looking for community,” says Chin.
The UVSO strives to foster “musicianship, camaraderie, artistic discovery, and the love of music” and is open to any community member, with no audition necessary. Members range from 16 to 92 years of age, come from all parts of the community, and range from professional musicians to learning beginners. Since 2008, players have found joy in learning great music together, finding their place within the ensemble, and performing for their neighbors in the Upper Valley. The premiere of Upper Valley Seasons is an important milestone for the UVSO.
The idea for this collaboration came about with the help of one of the orchestra’s generous supporters who was inspired by Chin’s music. UVSO director Mark Nelson, who is always eager for a challenge, and for music that expands both the orchestra’s and the audience’s minds, says Upper Valley Seasons is the natural next step for the UVSO. “The music of the last 125 years comprises a treasure trove of riches that are under-explored by both community and professional ensembles,” says Nelson. “My experience with this repertoire has been transformative for me. I aspire to give musicians and audiences opportunities to discover, and savor, these remarkable sound-worlds.”
Inspired by the distinctiveness of the four seasons since moving to Vermont, Chin began his composing process by taking field recordings at different times of the year, and then interpreting the sounds of winter, spring, summer, and fall into an orchestral composition. The UVSO’s concerts this spring will feature movements “Autumn” and “Winter.” The premiere of the complete work will occur during the 2026-27 season.
When asked what the audience should listen for in each respective movement, Nelson said about “Autumn”: “It really is an extraordinary array of colors, and textures, and modulation of energies that are suggestive of autumn,” and that the audience will “need to open their minds and ears a lot, because the idiom is going to be unfamiliar.” Chin added that he would be remiss not to include a reference to Vivaldi’s “Autumn” in his music, and he encourages audiences to listen for quotes of that familiar melody.
Winter is a calm movement, evocative of the feeling of silence after a snow storm. “When it has stopped snowing, I always find the silence incredibly beautiful,” says Chin. “So, I went to open fields where I hoped not to have a lot of noise in the background, and I put my mic out and I’m like, I’m recording silence here, but it’s not completely silent.” This manifests in the orchestra as “air sounds in the [solo] clarinet and in the wind section, that gets complimented by the harmonic textures…very sustained, ethereal sounds.”
Chin decided to make this commission a concerto for clarinet, he says, because joining the orchestra is what brought back his clarinet playing. He expressed that this composition feels particularly meaningful to him because he is playing it as a part of the orchestra. “It’s really fun, opening my folder and taking out parts with my name on it…I love that,” he says. Working with the clarinet soloist has also been a highlight of orchestra rehearsals this spring, according to Nelson. “[Chin] has brought this fabulous clarinetist, Kelsey Gallagher, who, you can tell, has just completely wrapped her brain around this extremely challenging part,” he says.
You can hear the premiere of the “Autumn” and “Winter” movements of Upper Valley Seasons on April 26 at Mascoma Valley Regional High School, or April 29 at the Lebanon Opera House. This concert’s program will also include Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz, Carl Nielsen’s Saga-Dream, and will conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.