Coming up in Philly music: Jalbert serenades the ‘Road and Trees’

One of the pleasures of the new-music scene is the opportunity to hear composers discuss their work. Mozart and Beethoven may be all-time greats, but it’s been a while since they chatted with an audience. The next Music in the Galleries concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art combines a premiere with an in-depth discussion by the composer, complete with musical demonstrations.

Pierre Jalbert’s Light, Line, Shadow is a musical response to Edward Hopper’s 1962 oil painting Road and Trees, composed for a chamber group that mixes the colors of clarinet, percussion, flute, and strings. Jalbert will discuss his creative process and explain how it relates to the techniques Hopper employed in the painting. The musicians will include jazz clarinetist Bob Butryn and three Network regulars from the Philadelphia Orchestra: violinist Hirono Oka, violist Burchard Tang, and cellist John Koen.

This world-premiere concert is dedicated to the memory of Daniel W. Dietrich II, a longtime Network for New Music friend and supporter, who bequeathed the Hopper painting to the museum in 2016.

The Network for New Music will present Pierre Jalbert’s Light, Line, Shadow on Sunday, July 22, at 3pm in the Dorrance Galleries of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The concert is free with museum admission, but seating is limited.