Winston-Salem Symphony premieres music commissioned by Lynn Beck, with Elon students joining in performance

“Fanfare – Light from Shadows” by James Stephenson, a new work commissioned by Lecturer in Music Lynn Beck and her husband, John R. Beck, was performed during the Winston-Salem Symphony concerts on Oct. 13, 14 and 15. The Becks commissioned the festive piece in memory of their spouses, trombonist Jim Huntzinger and violist Nancy Holland-Beck, who both died of cancer in the 1990s. 

The world premiere opened a program that featured internationally acclaimed trumpet soloist Ryan Anthony, a cancer survivor battling multiple myeloma. Anthony, who is currently principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony and a former member of the Canadian Brass, returned home for chemotherapy treatment the very next day. The fanfare, scored for brass and percussion, was performed by the symphony and UNC School of the Arts faculty members under the direction of Assistant Conductor Jessica Morel as an artistic statement of support for all patients, caregivers, and medical professionals in cancer care.

Beck, a hornist with the symphony, was featured in an off-stage segment during Stephenson’s “Concerto for Hope,” which was composed as a biographical sketch of Anthony’s struggle with cancer.

Elon music students Rachel Hopkins and Tyler Kless were among 34 invited trumpet players performing in the balcony to enhance the program finale, Resphigi’s “Pines of Rome,” and in the words of Music Director Robert Moody, “to surround Anthony with his North Carolina trumpet family.”