Nicholas Maw

Contempory composer Nicholas Maw died yesterday at the age of 73. Born in England, Maw moved to the United States after his first marriage ended in divorce, making his home in Takoma Park with Maija Hay, a ceramics artist. For much of that time he was on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and had some success getting his music performed by American ensembles, including here in Washington, like the Left Bank Concert Society.

During those first years in Washington, Maw completed what will likely be considered his most important composition, Odyssey, a mammoth work for orchestra, over 90 minutes of continuous music on the scale of the Mahler and Bruckner symphonies. It was a shot across the bow of the compositional establishment of atonal serialism, because Maw embraced more tonal structures and lush harmonies. Hopefully, either Marin Alsop or Christoph Eschenbach will program the work with the Baltimore or National Symphony in the next season or two, which would be a fitting tribute to Maw.