Nú in collaboration with Halldór Smárason

Nú is a reintegration of the art of improvisation with the concerto genre and an exploration of how music might more directly respond to the present moment. Previous collaborations between Halldór Smárason and Sæunn Þorsteinsdóttir led them to imagine a concert experience where the combination of soloist, orchestra, and audience could be more meaningful and interactive than a typical performance, in which a true musical dialogue between soloist, orchestra, and audience can take place in real time in a concert setting.

Specifically, the piece is approximately 15 to 20 minutes in length, with the solo part almost completely improvised, as well as the written out parts in the orchestra including opportunities for improvisation. The audience plays a crucial role, as the solo part will be inspired by them and moments of interaction, and while the form of the piece remains the same, the length of each part is flexible, and therefore the length of the piece will vary with each performance.

As part of the rehearsal process, orchestral players will be invited to choose their level of engagement with improvisation in their parts, and those that have particular interest could be invited to a few sessions in the months leading up to the week of rehearsals to deepen their own improvisation practices as a professional development offering. This could be a good opportunity for a Friday morning concert for a younger audience, as the audience participation could be exciting for those who may not be familiar with this kind of concert experience.

Halldór and Sæunn have already produced a prototype which was performed with Christopher Rountree and the chamber orchestra Wild Up in Los Angeles in November 2022, and a recording of the performance has been made available to the committee. There is already interest from US orchestras in commissioning the expansion of the score to a full orchestra while continuing to explore greater audience participation.