Sunday Variations
Solo Bassoon
Russell Platt
Centennial Commission
About
Sunday Variations, for unaccompanied bassoon, was composed in 2022 to honor the centennial of the Curtis Institute of Music. While at Curtis in 1987 and ’88, my teacher was Ned Rorem, the composer and writer (and Curtis alumnus) whose presence in the history of American music and letters is both permanent and distinguished. My piece is based on a ten-note fragment from “Sunday Morning,” written for the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1977. It was designed for Catherine Van Handel, a fellow Curtis alumnus and the Principal Bassoon of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. It lasts almost four minutes.
Performance
| Russell Platt |
Sunday Variations |
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Duration
04:00 |
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Commissioning Year
2024 |
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Premiere
January 31, 2025 Bradley Symphony Center, Milwaukee, WS |
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Recording
December 1, 2022 Bradley Symphony Center, Milwaukee, WS |
Artists
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Russell Platt Composition
Russell Platt has composed works for the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Borromeo String Quartet, the Knights, the flutist Molly Barth, the tenor Paul Appleby, and the bassoonist Peter Kolkay. He has won both a Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and, in 2023, a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. He has composed at Yaddo, Copland House, and Civitella Ranieri. He teaches at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
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Catherine Van Handel Bassoon
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