Jennifer Higdon was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 31, 1962. The first performance of Cold Mountain Suite took place at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, on September 23, 2022, with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Amado. Cold Mountain Suite is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B-flat, two bassoons, four horns in F, three trumpets in C, three trombones (two tenor, one bass), tuba, three percussion (vibraphone, bass drum, crotales, suspended cymbal, Chinese cymbal, glockenspiel, brake drum, low or floor tom-tom, and strings. Approximate performance time is seventeen minutes.

Cold Mountain, an opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, North Carolina Opera, and Minnesota Opera. The libretto, by Gene Scheer, is based upon the 1997 historical novel by Charles Frazier about a wounded Confederate soldier who deserts the cause to return home to his beloved. The Santa Fe Opera performed the work’s premiere on August 1, 2015. Cold Mountain earned the International Opera Award for Best New Opera Premiere, and received two Grammy nominations. The orchestral Cold Mountain Suite was “Commissioned by New Music for America in cooperation with the League of American Orchestras and an outstanding group of consortium orchestras”, including the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.

While creating this suite, it was a wonderful challenge to determine which music to feature in order to create a dynamic and engaging orchestral work. Because Cold Mountain is about love, war, and death (imagine that in an opera!) there was a lot of dramatic music from which to pick. I chose various arias, duets, and quintets, with the idea that they would be arranged not in story order, but in a manner to create the greatest contrast for the listener. The beginning and end of the suite come from the opening of Act 2 and the closing of Act 1—purely for its style of ramping up. It then quickly moves into the Storm Music; followed by the quintet, I Should Be Crying; the duet, Orion (which I calculated would need two weeks to write, but in an amazing fit of inspiration, came to me in one day—the very thing creative types dream about); the fiddling duet, Bless You Ruby; Ada’s contemplative aria, I Feel Sorry For You; then music from the scene where Inman and Ada finally get together after 4 years of his being away at war; and finally to the music that ends Act 1 to close out the suite.

After taking 28 months to write this opera, and having lived with the characters so deeply in my heart and soul, it is truly a privilege to share this music with you. Thank you for joining us on this journey through Cold Mountain.

• Jennifer Higdon

program notes by Ken Meltzer