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Wide Angle Lunches: John Kennedy

John Kennedy: Matsukaze and the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra John Kennedy is a leader in bringing adventurous, contemporary music stunningly to life for
musicians and audiences.

As Resident Conductor and Director of Orchestral Activities at the Spoleto Festival USA, the American premieres to take place under his baton include the operas Faustus, the Last Night by Pascal Dusapin (2007), Proserpina by Wolfgang Rihm (2010), Emilie by Kaija Saariaho (2011), and Kepler by Philip Glass (2012).

This year, he conducts Matsukaze, by leading Japanese composer, Toshio Hosokawa. Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised it as "an unforgettable total work of art", and the New York Times as a triumph for contemporary opera. Drawing on elements of the Noh theatre tradition, Matsukaze confronts man's relationship with nature and fate in an ethereal and (per London's Financial Times) "compellingly beautiful" musical language.

A prolific composer and conductor, President of the Aaron Copland-co-founded American Music Center from 2002-2005 and Artistic Director of Santa Fe New Music since 2001, John Kennedy will also talk about the importance of the Spoleto Festival orchestra to the entire program of the festival.