THE STORY BEHIND: Boyer's "Silver Fanfare"

On May 3 & 4, conductor Thomas Wilkins and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra will present SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE with violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins.

Title: On Music's Wings: Silver Fanfare
Composer: Peter Boyer (1970- )
Last time performed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic: This is a RI Philharmonic Orchestra premiere. This piece is scored for two flutes, piccolo, three oboes, English horn, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, piano and strings.

The Story: Peter Boyer hails from Providence, R.I., where he received his initial higher education in music from Rhode Island College. He went on to garner a master’s and doctorate from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music. During the 1990s, Boyer moved to Los Angeles in order to attend the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Program at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles). There he benefited from the wisdom and tutelage of such composers as Elmer Bernstein and David Raksin.
       
In 1996, while in Southern California, Boyer was appointed to the faculty of Claremont Graduate University, and three years later he became the first recipient of the Helen M. Smith Chair in Music. This proved to be a springboard for Boyer’s career as a composer of international importance. By the opening of the 21st century, commissions for his music began pouring in, chiefly from American and European symphony orchestras. Notably, Keith Lockhart, Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, announced a joint project with Boyer that would be titled The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, honoring the legacies of John F., Robert F., and Edward M. Kennedy. Narrators for the 2010 premiere included actors Robert de Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris.
       
Silver Fanfare (2004) became the opening movement of Boyer’s On Music's Wings. For its Naxos recording, Boyer has written:

Silver Fanfare was composed as the first movement of the six-movement work On Music’s Wings, which was commissioned for the 25th anniversary season (2003-04) of the Pacific Symphony, in Orange County, California. The “silver” of its title refers to the silver anniversary of that orchestra. Though the 30-minute On Music’s Wings calls for vocal soloists and choirs in addition to the orchestra, Silver Fanfare is for orchestra alone, and was designed as a virtuoso orchestral “curtain-raiser” which could be performed separately. Carl St. Clair conducted its premiere with the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, California on June 13th, 2004.

Program Notes by Dr. Michael Fink © 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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