Cello Concerto
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Orchestra
- Composed
- 2026
- Duration
- 25'
- Publisher
- Lawdon Press
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About this piece
Jennifer Higdon's first cello concerto and her seventeenth concerto, written for the cellist Julian Schwarz, who approached her after hearing her Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto and came back with sponsorship for the commission. Higdon said she was 'struck by the lyrical gift that he brings to the cello' and 'knew immediately that melody would be at the heart of this work'. Its four movement titles read as a line of verse: 'Poet Dances Fervent Lines'. Commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic through its Voices of Today initiative, it was premiered by Schwarz with the RPO under Andreas Delfs at Kodak Hall, Eastman Theatre, on 18 April 2026, followed by performances with the Alabama Symphony, The Syracuse Orchestra (conducted by Schwarz's father, Gerard Schwarz), the Annapolis Symphony and the Harrisburg Symphony. The RPO will record it for Azica. Higdon publishes her own music through Lawdon Press, which she runs with her wife, Cheryl Lawson.
Technical overview
Four movements of about 25 minutes (Poet, Dances, Fervent, Lines); built around long, singing melody for the soloist, set against rhythmically driven, vividly orchestrated dance writing.