Commission

Performers such as the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the one-handed pianist Paul Wittgenstein famously expanded their instruments’ repertoires(collections) by commissioning new works—a tradition that is alive and well this season. The flutist Claire Chase marks the first decade of “Density 2036”—a genre-redefining project to commission a new flute program every year until, yes, 2036—by revisiting eight previous entries and unveiling two new ones, at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and at the Kitchen’s Westbeth space.

Also at Carnegie, Alisa Weilerstein, a cellist of depth, fire, and sinew, shares the first chapter of her own original series, “Fragments,” in a production by Elkhanah Pulitzer. The Crossing and the Philadelphia Orchestra partner on the choral piece “Vespers of the Blessed Earth,” which John Luther Adams, who pushes beyond musical clichés in his imaginings of the natural world, wrote especially for them.
–The New Yorker