The Reimagined Project is a professional recording & performance initiative featuring modernized orchestrations of famed classical works. The project was conceived and recorded during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which put a halt to live concert events across the world. During the fall of 2020, the Dr. Shirley Linzy Young Artists Orchestra of Las Vegas (YAO) was determined to provide our young artists with a unique opportunity to offset the devastating impact endured by our local community. This unique opportunity pushed and challenged the creative limits, imagination and artistry. The Reimagined Project created by YAO Music Director, Yunior Lopez featuring students & young professionals from the Young Artists Orchestra Academy & Symphony.
The project explores famed classical masterpieces by celebrated composers: Antonio Vivaldi (Winter), Johann Sebastian Bach (Chaconne), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Lacrimosa), Ludwig van Beethoven (Für Elise), and Giacomo Puccini (Nessun Dorma). With the exception of Maximilian Steinberg’s 1911 Chaconne transcription, each work was altered & modernized by living composers.
The overall message was to give the listener a new experience through each piece, such as Hilario Duran’s re-composition of Beethoven’s Für Elise turning the famed piano bagatelle into a slow & dreamy symphonic poem. Vivaldi’s Winter, by Yunior Lopez, recomposed morphologically using original chord progressions & structures, modernizing the piece with uncommon time signatures & minimalism for effect. The last of the recomposed works is Mozart’s Lacrimosa by Arturo Hernandez. The work approaches a euphoric listening experience by utilizing large symphonic & percussive forces to develop its famous motif. The result is reminiscent of a symphonic movie score that is subtle, triumphant, and ultimately bombastic.
The project closes with two transcriptions adapting the original composition for a full symphonic orchestra. The first is Maximilian Steinberg’s Chaconne based on Ferruccio Busoni’s version of the famed violin partita. The work was composed in 1911, and only one other recording is known to exist. The final work of the project is Puccini’s highly recognized and world known Nessun Dorma from Turandot. The piece was transcribed for full symphonic orchestra by award-winning Canadian jazz veteran, Roberto Occhipinti minus the singer. Unlike the other works, Mr. Occhipinti’s version is true to the score and keeps the original harmonic and melodic structure.
The Reimagined Project was recorded in November 2020 and March 2021 with a socially-distanced 80-piece symphony orchestra within a 10,000 square-feet gymnasium.