Forging Utopia for orchestra

Commissioned by the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

The first performance took place on January 5, 1998 during the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s 1998 new music festival in Ottawa, Canada. The orchestra was conducted by David Alan Miller

INSTRUMENTATION

2 Flutes (2 doubles Picc.) Oboe

English Horn

2 Clarinets in Bb

2 Bassoons (2 doubles Contrabasson [optional])

2 Horns in F

2 Trumpets in Bb

Timpani Strings

PROGRAM NOTE for John Oliver’s FORGING UTOPIA

“If this is a report more personal than otherwise, more pop culture than high-brow, that is no more than the first lesson of "brink culture." Today we cannot escape the influence of the popular, and we can find no authoritative standpoint from which judgments can be delivered with finality. This cultural and epistemological vertigo can be frightening, certainly, but it can also be pretty exciting–even liberating.”

Mark Kingwell, DREAMS OF MILLENNIUM