Triple bill: Ludwig van Beethoven, George Gershwin and Linda Robbins Coleman. (Photos: Des Moines Symphony)
By Michael Morain
Linda Robbins Coleman has been writing orchestral music for more than 30 years, so she’s accustomed to getting a call or an email from out of the blue. Orchestras have requested the rights to perform her music in North and South America, Europe and Australia.
Last year, an email came from across town. The Des Moines Symphony wanted to program one of her works in the current season. After the usual back and forth, maestro Joseph Giunta chose “The Celebration! (A Symphonic Jubilee)” and plans to perform its first and third movements on Saturday and Sunday at the Des Moines Civic Center.
“I’m just so thrilled and honored that my hometown symphony is honoring me,” Coleman said. “I can’t wait to hear what they’ll do with my dots on paper.”
She wrote those particular dots for the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Symphony’s 25th anniversary in 2000. Since then, the five-movement suite has been performed many times across the country. Coleman said the first movement (“The Invitation!”) is full of anticipation, like the buzz before a glamorous Old Hollywood soiree. The third movement (“The Life of the Party”) lets loose with jazzy shenanigans that escalate into a rowdy German oom-pah band.
Coleman’s 6-minute work will open this weekend’s concerts, before the orchestra plays Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with guest pianist Jon Kimura Parker, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
Coleman, a Des Moines native and Drake University graduate, is the first Iowa woman to have her work performed by a major orchestra. She has received more than 70 commissions over the years, as well as awards and grants from notable institutions like the Kennedy Center and National Endowment for the Arts. She co-founded the Iowa Composers Forum, and her music has been performed by 17 Iowa orchestras.
But this weekend marks a first: her debut with the home team.
“The Des Moines Symphony is such a cultural treasure,” she said. “You could put them up against any orchestra in the world.”
