It Takes Creative and Innovative Concert Programming

The piece that you hear in the video below was commissioned by the Orchestra of Southern Utah. This is a programmatic work (meaning a piece of music that is based on something other than music), that was composed by Marshall McDonald and Steven Sharp Nelson. It's about 3 cultures that settled along the Old Spanish Trail; the longest trail in American history. This route stretches about 1120 miles long from Santa Fe all the way to Los Angeles, which took about two and a half months to travel.

"The Spanish Trail Suite" 

Composed by Marshall McDonald and Steven Sharp Nelson

Conducted by Xun Sun

Video Producted by Video Ideas Productions

The Orchestra of Southern Utah used the music to complement the images and interactive visuals, while the video brought the music to life. The music was performed by a live orchestra while playing the video in the background. The fact that the work uses images straight from the Spanish Trail in Utah makes this work a great way to connect to the local community. This type of performance is not very common, as not many of these types of programmatic works exist, which emphasizes its creative and innovative quality.

The following video takes you behind the scenes with the composers of the piece and the conductor, Xun Sun as they talk about their ideas that led to the final product and its performance.

It is difficult for many symphony orchestras to commission new works, and implement them into new concert programs. The reason for this is because it takes coordination with the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as partnerships with other foundations and funding. However, I believe that it is important to implement news works into symphony programs in order to support existing composers and to add some variety now and then.

I hope you enjoy the videos! I know I did!

See more videos by the Orchestra of Southern Utah here!