
Early in 2022, the Eastman School of Music was awarded a $15,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts, to support a commission project as part of the School's Centennial year. The project, which Dean Jamal Rossi said would "play a role in diversifying the repertoire of orchestral music," will feature a new composition by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Anthony Davis, titled How Bright the Sunlight, with a libretto curated by Poet Laureat Joy Harjo.
Rossi went on to say, "we are confident that this work will resonate far beyond the walls of the Eastman Theatre."

The newly commissioned work, which will premier in Kodak Hall on Monday, December 5, 2022, is written for symphony orchestra and narrator, highlighting Haudenosaunee texts.
The Iroquois, officially the Haudenosaunee, are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/Turtle Island. The Eastman School of Music stands on land which was part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Haudenosaunee welcome you as you explore the unique culture held close to the hearts of their people.
Internationally recognized composer of operatic, symphonic, choral and chamber works, Anthony Davis is of Afro-American descent.

Librettist for the work is Joy Harjo, the first Native American to hold the position of U.S. Poet Laureate.
The premier will feature Harjo as narrator along with the Eastman Philharmonia under the baton of conductor Timothy Long, a pianist and conductor of Muscogee Creek and Choctaw descent who is Music Director of Opera at Eastman School of Music.

Additional opportunities to hear from Anthony Davis, free and open to the public:
Sunday, December 4; 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Eastman East Wing (EEW), Room 415: Conversation and Q&A with Composer Anthony Davis
Monday, December 5; 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.; Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre: Pre-Concert Conversation with Composer Anthony Davis, and Conductor Timothy Long; Moderated by Peter and Ansley Jemison from Ganondagan
Monday, December 5; 7:30 p.m.; Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre: Eastman Philharmonia World Premiere of Davis’ How Bright the Sunlight, conducted by Timothy Long. Also on the program: Rossini’s Barber of Seville: Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, conducted by Neil Varon.