Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale Vivaldi and the Oud
Peter Whelan leads a program anchored in Vivaldi’s propulsive string writing, paired with a newly commissioned concerto by Philharmonia composer-in-residence Tarik O’Regan. Vivaldi’s Overture to L’Olimpiade and concertos from L’Estro armonico—works built on rhythm, contrast, and forward motion—helped define the Baroque concerto. O’Regan’s concerto, receiving its world premiere, features acclaimed oud soloist Joseph Tawadros and places the oud—an ancient plucked instrument central to Middle Eastern musical traditions—in a solo role more often occupied by violin or cello, set against the string orchestra.
Peter Whelan, conductor
Joseph Tawadros, oud
Program
VIVALDI: Overture to L’Olimpiade
TARIK O’REGAN: Concerto for Oud,
Strings, and Percussion (World Premiere)
VIVALDI: Concerto for multiple violins
from L’Estro armonico
America 250: Tarik O'Regan
Before eventually becoming a naturalized American citizen, Tarik O'Regan was born in London to a family made up of a complex ethnic patchwork, which ultimately influenced his musical creations. His mother, having grown up in Morocco amongst an Algerian family, introduced Tarik not only to her rock record collection—featuring bands like the Who, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin—but also to Raï and Chaabi, the sounds of Moroccan and Algerian folk music. With a jazz-loving father hailing from Sri Lanka, Tarik recalls how "I always had this very strange dynamic in my house because both my parents had very complicated relationships with their colonial backgrounds." Tarik relocated to the United States in 2004 to take up a Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship at Columbia University, and he became a naturalized American Citizen in 2015. After making multiple documentaries for the BBC about emigrés to the US, Tarik went on to compose his opera The Phoenix, an immigrant story that explores Lorenzo Da Ponte's life in America. Today, Tarik O'Regan is a two-time Grammy-nominated composer whose inventive compositions incorporate Renaissance vocal writing, North African music, British rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s, jazz, and minimalist music.
