On November 12, the Eastman Philharmonia will premiere “Letters from Georgia” a new work by Kevin Puts featuring soprano Renee Fleming. What’s special about this premiere is that both Puts and Fleming are Eastman alumni, and the high-profile guests aren’t working with a professional orchestra—the top student orchestra at Eastman is presenting the song cycle on one of their concerts. This new work was commissioned by the Eastman School and written specially for Ms. Fleming’s voice.
WXXI Classical Intern Rennie Cotner had the chance to sit down with the music director of the Eastman Philharmonia Neil Varon, to talk about his role in the premiere of the song cycle, which sets letters written by American artist Georgia O’Keefe to music.
