In Wednesday’s (3/25) Greenville Journal (South Carolina), Paul Hyde writes, “The Greenville Symphony’s next program is a rarity in the classical concert hall—four orchestral works written in just the past few years, including a world premiere. The program, ‘The Last Five Years: American Music Now,’ will be presented March 28-29 … Seth Russell, the orchestra’s principal cellist, will be featured in the centerpiece of the program, Lembit Beecher’s 2021 cello concerto, ‘Tell Me Again,’ a virtuosic piece that reflects on the immigrant experience. Receiving its world premiere is Ivan Enrique Rodriguez’s ‘The Western Gospel’ … ‘These are all pieces by composers who are living and creating today,’ said the orchestra’s music director Lee Mills … ‘We work in a living art form …’ The four works are an important part of ‘The American Season,’ Mills said…. ‘The season would not tell the complete story of American music without relating the story of what’s happening now.’ Opening the concert is Clarice Assad’s ‘Circus Fantasia,’ a vibrant 2023 work … Katherine Balch’s ‘music for young water that danced beneath my feet’ [was] written in 2021 …. Rodriguez, the composer of ‘The Western Gospel,’ will be in town to work with Mills and the orchestra … Balch … will join Mills, Russell and composers Sam Hunter and Anthony Bernarducci to discuss emerging trends and cultural forces shaping today’s compositions.”
