Matthias Pintscher directing the Kansas City Symphony (Kansas City Symphony)
Seven internationally renowned composers interpret the seven days of creation
There are many stories of how the world came to be — a cosmic explosion, an island on the back of a turtle, a hatching egg, a raging battle, islands pulled up from the ocean floor — but the Judeo-Christian story is that God created the entire universe from nothing in a week.
Exploring this creative impulse, the Kansas City Symphony presents the world premiere of Genesis, which reframes the creation story via seven internationally renowned composers from a variety of backgrounds.
Kansas City Symphony’s music director Matthias Pintscher instigated the project, selecting the composers with KCS artistic consultant Patrick Chamberlain. The project is also an international endeavor, co-commissioned by Germany’s Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), Australia’s Musica Viva and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
“This project was created to explore differing cultures, backgrounds and identities, and how they navigate this shared idea of creation,” Pintscher said.
Pintscher started with the words. “In the Torah, the book of Genesis opens with [the Hebrew word] ‘Bereshit’ [beh-reh-sheet], which translates to ‘in beginning/in a beginning.’
“This opens the doors for a more philosophical approach to the creation story. Instead of a definite beginning and end, the composers are encouraged to be in transit, to think in circles. No one can define what a circle is or where it begins or ends. Together, we can forge something that encapsulates this fluidity and explores it.”
Pintscher invited each composer to interpret a different day of creation, creating a seven-movement work that encompasses this progress from nothingness to completion.
(Musikprotokoll © Francesco Filidei)
“They vary in age, ethnicity, religious background and aesthetics, but their differences are harmonious,” he said. The composers include Lisa Streich, Francesco Filidei, Chen Yi, Hannah Kendall, Mikel Urquiza, Saad Haddad and Mark Andre.
“I took into account what each day ‘means’ and matched each composer to the day that best suited their musical identity as I understand it. These seven composers continuously seek to learn, grow and explore the unknown as they create,” he said.
In Genesis, on the first day, God created light and separated night from day; on the second day, separated the sky from the water; on the third day, created land; on the fourth day, celestial bodies; on the fifth day, birds and fish; on the sixth day, animals and humans. On the seventh day, God rested.
So how do you get composers from different eras, backgrounds, creeds and styles, working independently, to create a cohesive work?
“My vision is to create an aesthetic landscape that’s walkable for the listener, where listeners can embrace the unknown,” said Pintscher. “I offered E-flat in the middle of the piano as a loose musical through-line. This note is seen as ‘magical’ and has inspired many composers throughout the history of music.”
Pintscher said the tone has significance with a range of composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Igor Stravinsky, Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner, often imbued with heroic associations.
“I associate middle E-flat as a horizon — an eternal note, that encompasses darkness and light,” he said.
Swedish composer Lisa Streich was tasked with day one: the creation of light and the separation into night and day… the cycle that sets in motion all that comes after. For her work, Morgen & Abend, she sought “chords of daylight and chords of night,” paired with the bassline from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Tendre Amour from the 1700s.
Tendre Amour — a hymn to love’s gentle and unifying power, is a serene, flowing aria that celebrates affection untouched by jealousy or conflict,” Streich said. “For me, it was important not only to explore light and darkness, day and night, but to intertwine those with the unifying force that lies — hopefully — beneath everything — unconditional love.”
Kansas City’s own Chen Yi was assigned the fourth day, and inspired by nature, history and culture, wrote Water Messenger. It’s a symbolic metaphor as the medium (described in Genesis) that “brings forth life and bridges the gap between chaos and order.”
In the lunar calendar, said Chen, water is listed as one of the elements (Sun, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth) in ancient China, and she brings these concepts together in her piece. “The music is fast moving with fluent passages like the flowing water, symbolizing the life force, communication and connection, to convey my wishes of bridging different cultures for better understanding towards the peace of the world.”
Mikel Urquiza, from the Basque Country in northern Spain, considered both the origin of birds and their present existence while exploring day five.
“The title, Urvogel, is a German word that can be translated as ‘primaeval bird.’ It is also the name of the Archaeopteryx, a feathered dinosaur that was thought to be an ancestor of birds,” said Urquiza.
“The work is full of birdlike melodies, rhythms and noises, most of them produced with the orchestral instruments, but also coming out of whistles or toys,” he said. This work also brings attention to the fate of birds today. “Many species are decaying all around the world, due to pesticides and the disappearance of their habitats.” He dedicated the work to naturalist Jane Goodall, who died in 2025.
The sixth day — the creation of animals and humans — was interpreted by Saad Haddad, who blends Middle Eastern music traditions into Western art music.
His piece, Shabah, means “likeness” in Arabic. “This is the moment when life comes into being in its intended form,” said Haddad.
Haddad created a motif built from the name Adam — using the notes A-D-A-E (the “M” correlated to “mi” of the scale). “This produces a collection built around perfect fourths and fifths, intervals among the most fundamental in musical practice, used since antiquity and resonant across cultures. These sonorities permeate the work as a sonic metaphor for origin, likeness and a world ordered before the need for division or measure.”
“The music lives in this fragile moment before anything has gone wrong. Before the Fall. Before suffering, doubt or loss,” he explained. “There is no need to imagine a better world, because nothing has yet been broken.”
Kansas City Symphony presents the world premiere of Genesis and Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto at 8 p.m. May 29 and 30, and 2 p.m. May 31 at the Kauffman Center. For tickets and more information, www.kcsymphony.org.
VIOLINIST GIL SHAHAM RETURNS
The Genesis concerts are joined by performances of Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto by the inestimable Gil Shaham on violin. Shaham is an international and local audience favorite and has performed in Kansas City many times since his first appearance here in 1993, including during music director emeritus Michael Stern’s final season. He first performed Brahms’ concerto with KC Symphony in 2003. He was supposed to perform it again with the orchestra in 2020, but performances were cancelled due to the pandemic.
So Shaham returns to the piece and to Helzberg Hall with his “megawatt energy,” unmatched virtuosity and joyous spirit in this favorite of concertos.
