Thursday, June 7

Among the influences shaping the music of Alexandra Gardner, this season’s composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony, is her experience as a percussionist, her studies of electroacoustic music and her fascination for the compositions of Steve Reich. “My heart is with rhythm and pulse” Alexandra says of her music. Her newly composed piece “Significant Others” will have its world premiere by the Seattle Symphony, music director Ludovic Morlot conducting, in Benaroya Hall on June 14th and 16th. The piece is inspired by the larger-than-life personality of Leonard Bernstein, whose music from the 1953 Tony Award-winning musical “Wonderful Town” will be featured on the program. On our most recent KING FM/Seattle Symphony Spotlight, Dave Beck spoke to Alexandra Gardner about her work with student composers and homeless youth in Seattle and her fascination for music’s power to “make something terrible into something that is beautiful.”