By Nancy Plum

On the 55th anniversary of man landing on the moon, it was fitting that New Jersey Symphony showed Princeton the future of musical composition. As part of its commitment to contemporary works, the Symphony sponsored its annual, weeklong, tuition-free Institute devoted to “enhancing the careers of four emerging composers” who, through in-depth coaching and rehearsals with the Symphony, were able to hone their craft and “move the ball forward” with orchestral music. This year’s culminating Edward T. Cone Composition Institute concert was held last Saturday night at Richardson Auditorium, featuring new pieces exploring a wide range of ideas. Conducted by Christopher Rountree, the performance brought well-deserved attention to four distinctive individuals with clear futures in the performing arts.

Composer Leigha Amick believes that music has the potential to “reflect on both the current and the timeless human experience, to provide grounds for intellectual fascination, and to quench the need for emotional expression.” Her extensive repertory, for both instrumental and vocal ensembles as well as electronics, has been performed nationwide. Amick’s Cascade, inspired by a composition by American Carl Stone for electronics, bagpipes and organ, was built around an altered passacaglia in which the character changed with each of a series of harmonic cycles.

Under Rountree’s conducting, Cascade moved from percussive and disjointed to calm and still by the end of the work. New Jersey Symphony’s percussion section cleanly introduced the opening harmonic progression against pizzicato strings. Each harmonic cycle was of a different nature, embedded in a light texture often resembling cascading notes. Amick’s appealing piece moved well through quick meter shifts to close in a lush orchestral palette.

New Zealander Jessie Leov was inspired by a painting by a fellow New Zealand artist to create a piece rooted in duality and “shifts of perception.” Speculations on a Rainbow took the audience behind Leov’s interpretation of the painting, with contrasts of consonance and dissonance, particularly layered within the wind instruments. Speculations opened with bell-like percussion, gradually building tension through repeated rhythmic patterns. The New Jersey Symphony players well demonstrated the complexity of lines within each instrumental family. Rhythmic motives were heard from all parts of the stage over a pointillistic underpinning, with the brass sections providing an especially solid foundation to the sound.

The composers selected for the Cone Institute reflected a world-wide representation, and Filipino Paul Cosme brought centuries-old Asian traditions into his imaginative A Stranger in a Festival of Spirits.

Conveying the story of someone unknowingly entering the world of the spirits, this piece captured Cosme’s own background living in numerous regions of the world. A Stranger in a Festival of Spirits began with a percussive bang introducing the subtle atmosphere of a forest, with graceful wind solos, including from oboist Michelle Farah, emulating a person anxiously peeking around unfamiliar territory. Fear was depicted by a woodblock, and as the traveler became more comfortable in the spirit world, lyrical solos from concertmaster Eric Wyrick and principal hornist Kyle Hoyt contrasted well with more complex passages. Cosme also asked for a different acoustical sound from the quintet of New Jersey Symphony horns by having them lift the bells of their instruments. This inventive work ended peacefully, with delicate playing from flutist Gen Shinkai, accompanied by harpist Lynette Wardle.

The final Cone Institute composer on the program, Santiago Beis, is of Uru-Brazilian background, but chose to explore the Czech concept of “spletna,” a term coined by Leoš Janácek describing the acoustical “twining” which he claimed occurred for a millisecond when one chord changes to another. Through the one-movement Spletna, Beis addressed the question of “does sound cease to exist when it stops?” Beginning with the viola section, Beis drew creative effects from all instrumentals, ranging from languid strings to muted trumpets to sliding trombones. A second contrasting section featured effectively percussive winds, brass, and piano, with a third part highlighting winds and solo trombone successfully leading back to closing strings.

Institute Director and Princeton University Professor Steven Mackey has always included something of his own repertoire on the Institute’s culminating performance, and the 2013 Urban Ocean demonstrated how Mackey has captured slices of America in his music. Commissioned by Long Beach, Calif.’s Aquarium of the Pacific, Urban Ocean depicted the dichotomy of dense marine life so close to an equally as dense population base, together with the challenge of how ocean and land life can successfully co-exist. In New Jersey Symphony’s performance, swirling winds portrayed the waving kelp and other flora under the sea while the diverse populations, cultures and busy professional lives of those on land were illustrated through intricate rhythms and hectic instrumental activity in a smooth flow. Through it all, the immense majesty of the sea returned periodically to remind everyone who was really the boss, as the two worlds eventually achieved a delicate balance. Mackey’s piece balanced well with the innovative output of the four Cone Institute composers, concluding an evening of music all worthy of being heard again.