“Sandbox Percussion and violinist Kristen Lee, repeat performers to Newport Classical, lit up Newport’s Breakers Mansion Thursday night with towering new works by American composers Gabriella Smith, Vivian Fung, and Joan Tower. The two works by Vivian Fung and Gabriella Smith had both premiered in March of this year in Emerald City Music’s Seattle Venue, but Fung’s Goddess // Insect was co-commissioned by a consortium that included Emerald City Music, Constellation Chamber Concerts, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, and Newport Classical, with generous support from the ECM Commissioner’s Circle. Such co-commissions generate larger and more substantive works, help composers gain recognition that is often long overdue, and bring both the composers and their works to a broader spectrum of the public…”
-Stephen Martorella, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
