Composers Datebook

Recordings can be an effective calling card for composers – but the expense of recording an orchestral work in the U.S. is rather daunting, so composers often work with record labels that use orchestras abroad. American composer Rain Worthington made a recording of her orchestral work “Tracing a Dream” with the Russian Philharmonic on today’s date in 2010, and, in quintessential 21st century fashion, planned to “attend” the Moscow recording session via Skype. “But just as I was about to login,” recalls Worthington, “the recording assistant emailed the Russian authorities had revoked the permission to Skype. At the last minute an appeal by my American recording producer, Bob Lord, who was present in the studio, somehow convinced them to allow the connection. So I spent the morning ‘virtually’ in Moscow, listening to and participating in the three-hour recording session!” “’Tracing a Dream’ taps into the impressionistic logic of dreams,” says Worthington. “Within this realm there is a fluidity of connections governed by emotional contexts, rather than rational order.“ Six years after its recording in Moscow, “Tracing a Dream” received its public premiere by the Missouri State University Orchestra conducted by Christopher Kelts and was awarded an Ernst Bacon Award for the Performance of American Music.