From friendship to music: Stephen Williamson premieres Christopher Theofanidis’s clarinet concerto at the CSO
On a summer day in 2022, Stephen Williamson stood outside with his clarinet in Aspen, Colorado. Surrounded by an endless blue sky, mountains and the sun, Williamson – the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal clarinetist – worked through intricate passages of a new concerto. Its composer, Christopher Theofanidis, was there with Williamson, shaping the music in real time. ‘Playing it outside in the fresh air, with the mountains around us, brought a whole new dimension to the sound’, Williamson recalls.
After almost three years of anticipation – due in part to an unexpected health setback – Williamson is finally set to premiere the concerto, Indigo Heaven, which was written specifically for him. ‘This piece has been on my mind for so long’, he says. ‘It’s deeply personal, and I can’t wait to finally share it with an audience’. That moment in Aspen was just one step in a long journey for the work, which began as a casual conversation and evolved into one of this concert season’s most highly anticipated premieres.
Indigo Heaven was commissioned in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its origins go back much further. Williamson and Theofanidis first met as students at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Their friendship, built over decades, laid the foundation for this collaboration. This is the first concerto written specifically for Williamson, and the idea came about unexpectedly during a conversation at the American Festival for the Arts in Houston. ‘My wife was just talking with Chris and said, “Have you considered writing a piece for Steve?” So she’s the one who actually instigated the idea, and my jaw kind of hit the floor’, Williamson says.
Theofanidis quickly latched onto the suggestion and asked the next logical question: Would the Chicago Symphony Orchestra be interested? ‘I’ve never had a piece commissioned for me, so I didn’t even know who to ask at first’, Williamson admits. With the support of the CSO’s then-music director Riccardo Muti and Vice President of Artistic Administration Cristina Rocca, the commission was secured, marking a major milestone in Williamson’s career. Composer and soloist worked closely during the Aspen Festival in the summer of 2022 in the lead up to the premiere. But just a few months later, Williamson unexpectedly underwent surgery, pushing the concerto’s debut to this season.
The postponement’s silver lining is that they could continue refining the piece, making adjustments even recently on the final bars of the third movement. Williamson also used the time to form a deeper connection with the concerto. ‘I would revisit it every few months or so just to keep it fresh, but I also let it sit for a while, mainly because I want to understand the piece better’, he explains.
Indigo Heaven is Theofanidis’s tenth concerto and his first for the clarinet. For Williamson, the piece is unlike anything the composer has done before. When Theofanidis shared an early MIDI file of the first movement, Williamson realized the piece was far more direct and transparent than he expected. ‘I was very used to thinking that there’s going to be all this intricate stuff going on in the orchestra, and that’s what the surprise was for me’, he says.
Throughout the composition process, Theofanidis prioritized how the concerto felt to play. Williamson recalls telling him early on, ‘It does feel good. Right from the get-go, it was very organic for me. It lies very well on the clarinet’. Though he didn’t want to alter Theofanidis’s signature lyrical and harmonic style, Williamson did suggest adjustments to enhance the soloist’s virtuosity.
That sense of clarity and openness extends beyond the notes themselves. Like many of Theofanidis’s works (such as the orchestral Rainbow Body), Indigo Heaven has a title that hints at the piece’s character rather than describing it in literal terms. The name comes from Mark Warren’s 2021 novel Indigo Heaven, a Western set in Wyoming in 1876 that explores themes of redemption and personal growth. ‘The piece is very pictorial’, Williamson says. ‘He writes with a beautiful harmonic language. Hopefully, people will see the imagery he’s alluding to – not just from what happens in the book, but where the book takes place’.
As the premiere approaches, Williamson is still unearthing the work’s layers. He finds the second movement filled with color and a transcendent quality, where the music seems to hover above both the soloist and orchestra. The final movement is a lively dance between the two. But the first movement remains a puzzle. ‘It’s not really emotionally connected to the other two movements’, he says. There’s an underlying struggle, sharpened by dissonant outbursts from the clarinet. Williamson laughs, ‘We’re having a discussion on Monday about the piece’, but he doesn’t expect much guidance from Theofanidis. ‘He wants it to be my own experience’.
The debut marks a milestone for Theofanidis as well: it is the first time one of his works will be performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His music has been championed by numerous ensembles across the U.S. and abroad, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has been particularly instrumental in shaping his career as part of the so-called Atlanta School of Composers. Now, with the CSO taking on his latest concerto, the composer’s reach continues to grow.
Williamson wants to ensure the concerto has a lasting legacy. He says, ‘I want Chris’s music to be heard and performed as much as he would’. Holding exclusive performance rights for the near future, Williamson plans to share Indigo Heaven with audiences far beyond Chicago. He believes the concerto’s accessibility and enjoyability will appeal to orchestras and audiences alike, stating: ‘I hope it’s a piece that people want to hear and play. It is very accessible. It is fun for me to play, but I think orchestras would also love playing it’.
That journey will continue in June when Williamson records the concerto with the Albany Symphony. ‘I’m excited that it’s going to be documented, at least in a digital format, so it will be accessible for anybody to listen to’, he says. With this recording, Indigo Heaven will have the opportunity to reach even more musicians and listeners and secure its position in the repertoire.
Zach Carstensen
Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert dates: 6-8 March at Orchestra Hall (information here).