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Concertos are typically works meant to showcase dazzling virtuosity. But when the composer and instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey set out to write one for saxophone and orchestra several years ago, he quickly dispensed with convention.<\/p>\n
Describing the work as an \u201canti-concerto,\u201d Sorey set out to provide a \u201crespite from the chaos and intrusiveness of modern life.\u201d In the score, he instructed the soloist and orchestra to play very softly and at an unhurried tempo of thirty-six quarter notes per minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not interested in having a typical experience,\u201d Sorey, 43, said in an interview. \u201cI just wanted to create a work that kind of gets us to let the music wash over us, and lets us take our time in listening to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, the work, called \u201cAdagio (For Wadada Leo Smith),\u201d which was commissioned by the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, was awarded<\/a> the Pulitzer Prize in Music<\/a>. It was a high honor for an artist who has spent his career defying labels<\/a>, blurring the boundaries between jazz and classical music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sorey wrote the roughly 20-minute work to pay tribute to Smith, the celebrated American trumpeter and composer, whom he met two decades ago and calls a mentor.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery moment I spend with him is a learning experience,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s always been something that I value and cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pulitzer committee praised the piece as an \u201cintrospective saxophone concerto with a wide range of textures presented in a slow tempo, a beautiful homage that\u2019s quietly intense, treasuring intimacy rather than spectacle.\u201d<\/p>\n The finalists for the prize were Mary Kouyoumdjian<\/a>\u2019s \u201cPaper Pianos,\u201d a multimedia work about \u201cthe dislocation, longing and optimism of refugees\u201d; and Felipe Lara\u2019s \u201cDouble Concerto,\u201d<\/a> which was commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and featured a pair of soloists, the bassist Esperanza Spalding and the flutist Claire Chase, at its premiere.<\/p>\n Sorey has won praise as a prolific and discerning composer. He was a recipient of a 2017 MacArthur \u201cgenius\u201d award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer last year for \u201cMonochromatic Light (Afterlife)<\/a>,\u201d commissioned to honor the 50th anniversary of the Rothko Chapel in Houston.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n