Composer Ted Hearne premieres new work with LA Chamber Orchestra

Composer Ted Hearne, who joined the USC Thornton Composition faculty in 2014, premiered a new work with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on May 17, closing the ensemble’s 2014-2015 season. Hearne’s piece, “respirator,” evoked his struggles with childhood asthma through percussive and experimental sounds created by the orchestra.

In a review of “respirator” for the Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed wrote that “the sounds, while not new to experimental music, have conspicuous character and their mellowing out into charismatic melodic shapes signal hope, as does a more regulated percussive pulse.”

The orchestra was led by music director Jeffrey Kahane, who will be joining the USC Thornton faculty on a part-time basis beginning next fall. Of Kahane’s conducting, Swed noted that “he made himself essential with a crisp attention to sound and pulse in the Hearne.”