Adam Schoenberg's PICTURE STUDIES Makes World Premiere with Kansas City Symphony Tonight

Adam Schoenberg will present his World Premiere "Picture Studies" for orchestra with the Kansas City Symphony at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts' Helzberg Hall tonight, February 1, 2013, featuring Michael Stern, conductor.

This season Adam Schoenberg began his tenure as the first-ever composer-in-residence of the Kansas City Symphony. His duties include a commissiones work for the orchestra in addition to teaching and outreach programs.

For his commission, Adam has chosen to write his very own rendering of "Pictures of an Exhibition," his entitled Picture Studies. The work is based on modern paintings, photographs and sculptures in the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. In the Mussorgsky/Ravel tradition, some of the studies were first written as highly-virtuosic piano studies which he then orchestrated.

The 26-minute piece, consisting of 10 movements including an introduction and interludes (the "promenade"), was inspired by works of art by Baasch, Blake, Bloch, Calder, van Gogh (shown), Mirò, Kandinsky, and Sugimoto.

Schoenberg has already demonstrated his affinity with the visual arts by his very successful and widely-performed orchestra work "Finding Rothko," whose four movements are based on Mark Rothko paintings.

Adam Schoenberg has also embarked on his American Symphony Project, the goal of which is to have 50 orchestras in 50 states perform his American Symphony as a symbol of hope for the nation. Read more about this project on the brand new website www.CulturePath.com.