Lawren Brianna Ware will be in Appleton for the performance of "The Moirai," a commission from April Ann and Kevin Sütterlin as a gift to the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, in honor of their dear friend and mother figure Danna Sue Browder Brown, who passed away on August 3, 2024.
She will join us for the concert as well as the pre-concert talk, but let's learn a bit more about the piece so you can come to the talk ready with questions!
Purchase your tickets now for our November 16, 2024 concert!
What was your inspiration for the piece? What brought you to this idea?
The piece was inspired by the concert's overall theme of fate. After speaking with Kevin and learning that the closing piece would be Beethoven's 5th Symphony, I had the idea to tie in the idea of "fate knocking" into my piece. Since my composition would open the concert and Beethoven's 5th would close the. concert, I felt that it would be really cool to create a piece that helped to "bookend" the program with the theme of "fate." I chose a more literal route and composed the piece based on the Fates or "Moirai" from Greek Mythology.
What do you want people to take away from the performance?
My goal in writing is to "create music that makes one feel." Regardless of the feeling (although of course I hope that it is a GOOD feeling), I want the listener/audience to be intellectually stimulated while also experiencing a visceral reaction. Also, I just want the audience to have fun and enjoy the piece. I want them to be transported musically so that they can see the story that I am attempting to tell unfold.
We are delighted you will be joining us for the concert. Is this the first time you will be joining an orchestra for a world premiere?
I am SO excited and honored to be joining you! Thank you for the opportunity! And yes, this is my first time joining an orchestra for a world premiere and I am SO PUMPED!!! I have had the opportunity to have pieces read by my school's orchestra, but this is the first time I've had a premiere by a professional orchestra. It's really a dream come true!
Tell us a little about your other works.
I have a wide range of other works with some being very traditional acoustic "contemporary classical" to electronic works. I've had the opportunity to write for many different ensemble types and instrument combinations from orchestra, to wind ensemble, chamber works to electronic music for a comic book. The vast majority of my compositions are programmatic in nature. I focus on telling the stories that I feel need to be told. Those stories, for me, are based on experiences ranging from simply seeing beautiful art or travelling all the way to focusing on topics of mental health, African-American and World history, mythology, literature, and deep emotions.
More about Lawren Brianna Ware:
Dr. Lawren Brianna Ware, a Gadsden, Alabama native, is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her DMA in Music Composition with a minor in musicology. Compositionally, Dr. Ware’s goal is to “write music that makes one feel.” Although she is an “up and coming” composer, she has begun to secure her place in the world of contemporary classical composition. Dr. Ware’s compositions have been featured on several professionally recorded albums including Marcus Eley’s Grammy nominee contender (2023) “Perseverance,” Jessica Johnson’s “Sojourn”(2023), the Amernet Quartet’s “Alabama String Quartets (Birmingham Arts Music Alliance)”(2020) and Dr. Cole Bartels’ “On the Brink”(2022). She will be included on upcoming albums by Cobus du Toit (flute) and Lara Downes (piano). Her most recent projects include working as a Lullaby Teaching Artist for the Overture Center’s Lullaby Project, being the inaugural composer and co-founder of the Black Composer Revival Consortium, composing for the Minnesota Consortium for Black American Composers (2020), and composing and releasing an electronic music album in conjunction with comic book writer Jaromir François on the comic My Brother Teddy (2021).
