Thus, her choral works make the rounds as quickly as her acclaimed orchestral efforts. More visibility While new symphonic works often sink into oblivion after their premieres, the Philadelphia Singers will perform Morten Lauridsen's 1993 Les Chansons des Roses for the second time in Philadelphia this season Sunday. Even before the Philadelphia Orchestra gave its much publicized premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Symphony No. 7 a year ago, the Choral Arts Society's Donald Nally, who reads through 250 new scores annually, was onto this increasingly popular Finnish composer and selected his works for his Northern Lights program May 19 at St. Patrick's Church. In Montgomery County, the enterprising Judith Willoughby is unveiling her latest compositional discovery, Hilary Tann, whose complete choral works will be performed by Choral Society of Montgomery County on Sunday in Blue Bell. Several factors allow all of this to happen.
Some groups even produce and record their own compact discs.
Lower commissions That can also mean lower-profile concerts. Because so many of the composers are known only in this decentralized musical subculture, conductors can't always choose pieces by names they recognize. Often, commissions result from a chance encounter with one of their pieces in a stack of music acquired at a choral convention. There's lots of vapid, feel-good music out there, some conductors say. But you never know when you're going to find the next Morten Lauridsen, the Portland, Ore.-based composer who became a national figure after a 1999 Grammy Award nomination.