Tristan Foison (*1961): Violin concerto

[violinconcerto]

Hello,

while searching for a Desenclos work I came across the name of the infamous Thomas Foison, who let a Requiem by Desenclos played under his name. This all just came up because of someone in the audience of the "world premiere" of the Foison requiem remembered that he was singing in a Requiem by Desenclos a few months ago that sounded exactly the same.... Foison stuttered several obscure explanations for this confusion and claimed days and weeks that the Requiem was composed by him. And then suddenly disappeared. Thats how I read the story, maybe there are some differences, so anybody you can give a more detailed version feel free to add some comments. In fact it was quite difficult to get information about Foison, because of this story I guess.

But thats just as a starter. My real question is something I read while reading the great articles about the Foison-Desenclos-Mix-up: I read that the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra commissioned a violin concerto from Foison (before he got a persona non grata) which Beth Newdome premiered under the conductor John Morrison. Unfortunately I could not find any information about this work or the performance. I wrote e-mails to both ACSO and also ASO (just in case its the other Atlanta SO), but received no answer.
I would love to know the work, especially with the Desenclos background and see which violin concerto Foison threw in as his own. Maybe the ACSO is ashamed to commissioned a work by an impostor and therefore sent no answer. Or this whole story is wrong as well - I just don't know.

So if anyone of you has more to tell about Foison, the violin concerto and a possible performance - I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and the real story.

Best,
Tobias

[DaveF]

What an extraordinary story, and how stupid to plagiarise a piece that had been published, performed and recorded.  The affair with the violin concerto, as indeed with the Requiem, happened some time ago (the Requiem concert was in 1999), and Beth Newdome has since died, so the chances of finding out anything more seem remote.  This file: http://www.mousehk.net/agent/db/00004508.txt, if you can get it to open, contains a bit more information, and suggests that the concerto was never actually performed - and makes Foison sound like even more of a charlatan.

DF

[violinconcerto]

Hello Dave,

yes, that site was my source for the story as well - an amazing story indeed!
The part of the text referring to the violin concerto wasn't totally clear to me. I understood that the concerto was performed ("..Beth Newdome [..] was the soloist..") and that Foison in fact provided a score ("...he even asked for the score back.")

Here is the original part from the text, maybe you (or anyone else with better English than me) can tell me why my understanding of the text is wrong:

The Atlanta Community Orchestra, a volunteer group, commissioned a violin
concerto from Foison in 1998. Beth Newdome, an ASO violinist, was the
soloist and John Morrison the conductor. "We paid him four grand for that
piece," Morrison said. "The funny thing is that it was like he didn't write
it for us - there was too much music for us to learn in our rehearsal time.
And he wouldn't make any changes to accommodate us. We were in over our
heads. I recall that at the end he even asked for the score back."


And finally where are the guys and girls from Atlanta here who were noticing this whole story while it happened or better attended one of the Foison concerts?

Tobias

[jlaurson]

Here is the original part from the text, maybe you (or anyone else with better English than me) can tell me why my understanding of the text is wrong:

The Atlanta Community Orchestra, a volunteer group, commissioned a violin
concerto from Foison in 1998. Beth Newdome, an ASO violinist, was the
soloist and John Morrison the conductor. "We paid him four grand for that
piece," Morrison said. "The funny thing is that it was like he didn't write
it for us - there was too much music for us to learn in our rehearsal time.
And he wouldn't make any changes to accommodate us. We were in over our
heads. I recall that at the end he even asked for the score back."

It's just a badly written sentence. The grammar suggests it was performed, but the context suggests it wasn't. I'd go with context.

[DaveF]

It's not clear even to this native English speaker what exactly happened: "there was too much music for us to learn in our rehearsal time" (but did they go ahead anyway and do their best?); "at the end he even asked for the score back" (at the end of the concert - or in rehearsal when they had abandoned all attempts to play it?).  But there's no need to worry, Tobias, because I'm sure the piece is on your database anyway, under the name of its real composer.

DF

[violinconcerto]

I found another article (from 10.01.2002) here:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/011002/ent_0110020001.shtml

and in it the text says:

"And the Franklin College Music Series, which graciously offers concerts free of charge to the community each year, continues Friday, Jan. 11 at 8 pm with The Inman Trio performing in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. Named for Atlanta's lovely Inman Park neighborhood, the trio performs throughout the Southeast, and is comprised of cellist Beth Newdome, who in 1998 premiered a violin concerto written for her by composer Tristan Foison and currently serves as visiting professor of violin at Florida's Stetson University; .."

So that sounds to me like a performed work. (OK, Beth Newdowm was a violinist, maybe thats a typo)
So whats the local Atlanta newspaper and does it have an online access for the older issues? I would love to search through some 1998 issues...

Best,
Tobias

[Mirror Image]

I found another article (from 10.01.2002) here:

http://onlineathens.com/stories/011002/ent_0110020001.shtml

and in it the text says:

"And the Franklin College Music Series, which graciously offers concerts free of charge to the community each year, continues Friday, Jan. 11 at 8 pm with The Inman Trio performing in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. Named for Atlanta's lovely Inman Park neighborhood, the trio performs throughout the Southeast, and is comprised of cellist Beth Newdome, who in 1998 premiered a violin concerto written for her by composer Tristan Foison and currently serves as visiting professor of violin at Florida's Stetson University; .."

So that sounds to me like a performed work. (OK, Beth Newdowm was a violinist, maybe thats a typo)
So whats the local Atlanta newspaper and does it have an online access for the older issues? I would love to search through some 1998 issues...

Best,
Tobias

The Atlanta newspaper is The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I'm not sure if their website has access to older papers or not.