Co-presented with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Strauss Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Soloists from Experiential Orchestra
James Blachly, Conductor

Special Thanks‍

This program is made possible, in part, by the generous underwriting of the following individuals: David and Cyndie Langstaff, Edward and Ellen Bernard, Mary Jane Brock, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Pamela Morton, and Jessica Murrow.

Notes on the Program

 Tonight’s music pairs two exquisite works for strings, both of them reflecting on the past. Strauss’s Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings is a study in shifting timbres and harmonies, creating the effect of something both unchanging and constantly evolving over a vast expanse of emotions. The four chords we hear at the beginning of the work become a recurring statement, ever shifting in kaleidoscopic colors, followed by a descending lamenting line that we also hear many times, passed from solo instrument to solo instrument; only at the very end of the piece is it fully revealed, as the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. At this point in the score, Strauss writes “IN MEMORIAM,” and we are left to consider whether this refers to the music, or to a broader sense of loss.   

The Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme ofThomas Tallis brings a 400-year-old hymn tune to a glorious wealth of string color. In our performance, three groups of instruments represent the past, in Orchestra II, with voicings and senza vibrato indications perhaps evoking the sounds of the Viola da Gamba consorts of 15^th century England, the present in Orchestra I, the largest ensemble, and the solo string quartet bringing us into the future with its rapturous fantasia melodies. Between the two works we have invited a vocal quartet to sing the original Thomas Tallis 3^rd Hymn Tune.

–James Blachly, Founder and Music Director, Experiential Orchestra

 
Why fum’th insight the Gentiles spite, in fury raging stout?
Why tak’th in hand the people fond, vain things to bring about?
The kings arise, the lords devise in councils met thereto
Against the Lord, with false accord, against his Christ they go.

 Let us they say, break down their ray of all their bonds and cords;
we will renounce that they pronounce their lores as stately lords.
But God of might in Heav’n so bright shall laugh them all to scorn;
The Lord on high shall them defy, they shall be once forlorn.

The Lord in fear your service bear, with dread to him rejoice;
Let rages be, resist not yet, him serve with joyful voice.
The Son kiss ye lest wroth he be, lose not the way of rest;
For when his ire is set on fire, who trust in him be blest.

Concert Description

Soloists from the Grammy®-Winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) return to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in an evening of music reflecting on memory, inviting the audience to lie down immersed in the sound of strings, walk in the space as the music reflects off the stones, or sit in seats surrounding the musicians.

Building on the success of Experiential Orchestra’s two performances of Passio last season, Music Director James Blachly brings his Grammy-Winning orchestra (with two additional nominations for 2025) back to the inspiring expanse of the Cathedral to offer a reflective and immersive night.
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Strauss Metamorphosen for 23 Solo Strings‍

Experiential Orchestra

James Blachly, Music Director

Jennifer Choi, Elissa Cassini, Christine Wu, Lady Jess, Hajnal Pivnick, Keir GoGwilt, Jude Ziliak, Francis Liu, Keiko Tokunaga, Simon Bilyk, violin

Edwin Kaplan, Jessica Meyer, Nick Revel, Laura Sacks, Mira Williams, viola

Coleman Itzkoff, Titilayo Ayangade, Luke Krafka, Madeline Fayette, Andrew Janss, cello

Nate Chase, Maggie Cox, Dominic Law, double bass

Thomas Tallis 3rd Hymn Tune:

Elisse Albian, soprano

Molly Yuko Mcguire, mezzo-soprano

Andrew Fuchs, tenor

Anicet Castel, bass-baritone

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

Orchestra I

Violin I: Jennifer Choi, Christine Wu, Hajnal Pivnick, George Meyer

Violin II: Rannveig Marta Sarc, Greta Myatieva, Simon Bilyk

Viola: Ramón Martínez, Nick Revel, Laura Sacks

Cello: Coleman Itzkoff, Madeline Fayette, Connor Kim

Double Bass: Nate Chase, Dominic Law

Orchestra II

Violin I: Jude Ziliak, Francis Liu

Violin II: Keir GoGwilt, Keiko Tokunaga

Viola: Jessica Meyer, Mira Williams

Cello: Andrew Janss, Luke Krafka

Double Bass: Maggie Cox

Solo Quartet

Violin I: Elissa Cassini

Violin II: Lady Jess

Viola: Edwin Kaplan

Cello: Titilayo Ayangade
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About Experiential Orchestra
 
The Grammy️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) brings audiences close to
the music by engaging listeners through imaginative, immersive, and interactive
concert experiences. Founded by Music Director James Blachly in 2009, EXO’s
performances and recordings have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by
the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and have been
praised for having “luscious tone and poise” by Classics Today.
 
EXO was founded on collaboration and co-creation, and each curated performance
is imbued with a generous spirit of celebration, facilitating the exploration of
what Blachly calls, “a new experience of sound” by audiences. The orchestra’s
performances take place in and outside the concert hall with audiences invited
to participate in unorthodox ways. EXO has performed the music of Arvo Pärt in
the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to
dance during Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at National
Sawdust, enveloped the audience in concerts at Lincoln Center with audience and
orchestra members sitting together, and presented Symphonie fantastique and
Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn.
 
Recent highlights have included a subscription concert at The Phillips Collection
in Washington, D.C., an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with
cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and the New York premiere of Julia
Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Curtis Stewart. In January
2024, EXO performed Pärt’s masterwork Passio at the Cathedral Church of St. John
the Divine, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the concert while
reclining on yoga mats. In March 2024, the orchestra co-presented a four-day Julia
Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York, coinciding with Perry’s
100th birthday that month.
 
EXO is known for imaginative and groundbreaking programming that frequently
advocates for under-celebrated masterpieces and composers. The orchestra’s
world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930) was released
on Chandos Records in 2020 to international critical acclaim in The New York
Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications.
The album won the Grammy️ for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021—the first
Grammy ever awarded for Smyth’s music. EXO’s world premiere recording of Julia
Perry’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Curtis Stewart, was released on the Bright
Shiny Things label in March 2024 and was nominated for two Grammy® awards in 2025.
 
EXO is led by Music Director James Blachly and General Manager Raphaele de
Boisblanc.
 
About James Blachly
 
James Blachly is a Grammy-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert
experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways.
He serves as Music Director of the Experiential Orchestra and the Johnstown
Symphony Orchestra, and is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire
with orchestras. Blachly’s performances have been praised by The Guardian
for “catch[ing] the music’s sweeping, sonorous energy,” while Musical America
applauds his “sense of finesse and reverence.”
 
Blachly’s recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include the New
York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, and
WDR Funkhausorchester. Other recent appearances include the Williamsburg
Symphony, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, Spokane
Symphony, Portland Symphony (ME), Danbury Symphony, and Odyssey Opera
(Boston), as well as performances at Trinity Church Wall Street, Roulette,
National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. In recent seasons, he has
collaborated with soloists Daniel Hope, Paul Jacobs, Michelle Cann, Simone Porter, Charles Yang, Julia Bullock, Dashon Burton, Helga Davis, Sarah Brailey, Andrés Cárdenes, Peter Dugan, Michael Chioldi, Karen Kim, Andrew Yee, and more.
 
James Blachly’s reputation as a powerful advocate for under-celebrated composers
was sealed with his world premiere recording with EXO of English composer
Dame Ethel Smyth’s 1930 masterpiece The Prison. Blachly is the editor of the new
Wise Music Group critical edition that has not only made modern performances
and this recording possible, but has also contributed to renewed interest in
Smyth’s work.
 
With the Johnstown Symphony (JSO), James Blachly has conducted the orchestra
at the Flight 93 Memorial for the twentieth Anniversary of 9/11, in a former steel
mill in a concert that was featured on Katie Couric’s America Inside Out, and
dramatically expanded access to the symphony throughout the region. During his
first eight seasons with the Johnstown Symphony, Blachly has emphasized long-
term relationship building with community leaders, expanding youth programs
and education initiatives including annual side-by-side performances with the
youth orchestra, initiating a youth concerto competition, and holding auditions
for local talent to perform with the symphony on “Johnstown’s Got Talent” pops
concerts.
 
Blachly has dedicated himself to using music to bring the Johnstown community
together, creating an annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert and a Juneteenth
concert in partnership with the NAACP, from which he received a commendation.
During the 2023-24 season, he continues his innovative programming, bringing
the symphony to the legendary War Memorial for the first time for a subscription
concert, bringing Carnegie Hall’s Link Up education initiative to Johnstown
for Young People’s Concerts, and expanding the JSO’s series of concerts i
unconventional spaces. Over the course of his directorship, concerts are
frequently sold out, both individual and season ticket sales have increased by
more than 50%, and individual giving has increased 80%, a testament to the
energy and enthusiasm that has defined his tenure.
 
In 2020, Blachly was invited to serve as the Associate Editor and Orchestral
Liaison for the African Diaspora Music Project, directed by Dr. Louise Toppin. He
has overseen the compilation of a database and website detailing more than 1,300
published works for orchestra by African diaspora composers. At the invitation of
founder Charles Dickerson, he assisted in curating a concert celebrating works
for orchestra by African Diaspora composers, and was one of six conductors to
lead the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at the League of American
Orchestras conference. A strong supporter of composers of our time, Blachly
has commissioned and premiered more than 40 works by composers including
Jessie Montgomery, Courtney Bryan, Viet Cuong, Michi Wiancko, Kate Copeland
Ettinger, Tommy Daugherty, Patrick Castillo, Brad and Doug Balliett, and many
others.
 
Dedicated to finding new ways of empowering audiences, Blachly is in demand
as a speaker on Listening as Leadership, bringing his conducting expertise and
passion for music to Fortune 500 companies, schools, and other organizations.
He has also conducted dozens of educational concerts for thousands of school
children. For ten years he conducted workshops and clinics for the New York
Philharmonic, served as Ensemble Director for the Baltimore Symphony’s
OrchKids program, and conducted clinics and appearances throughout western
Pennsylvania for the JSO. From 2010 to 2015, he performed benefit concerts
of Mahler symphonies with New York freelancers to launch what is now Make
Music NOLA, a thriving El Sistema-inspired program in New Orleans. In 2022,
Blachly held a week-long artist residency at Montclair State University featuring
composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery. During the residency, he delivered
keynote lectures on composition, conducting, and choral techniques, culminating
in an Experiential Orchestra-style immersive performance. In 2016, Blachly was
the only conductor from the U.S. invited to participate in the Young Conductor’s
Showcase as a part of El Sistema’s 40th Anniversary celebration, and he was also
the only U.S. conductor to be invited as Conducting Fellow in Maestra Marin
Alsop's final year at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
 
Also active as a composer, James Blachly studied at Mannes with Robert Cuckson
and privately with Charles Wuorinen and John Corigliano. His compositions have
been celebrated as “vigorous and assured” by Chamber Music America and a
“splendidly crafted...tour de force” by the Miami Herald, and have been performed
at The Stone, Zankel Hall, in an audience for the Pope, and broadcast live on the
CBC.