Piston Will Compose Orchestral Work for Minnesota Centennial

Walter H. Piston '24, Walter W. Naumberg Professor of Music, received a commission last week to write a major orchestral work to be used to mark the 100th anniversary of the University's of Minnesota.

Minnesota President J. L. Morrill made the announcement of Piston's acceptance of the commission.

Piston has agreed to complete the work by January, 1951, in time for performance during the university's centennial year, Morrill said.

The work, to be composed for full orchestra, will be given its world premiere in the university's Northrop Memorial Auditorium by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor, Antal Dorati, was instrumental in interesting Piston in the commission.

Major Spot In Program

Morrill announced that the first performance of the composition will occupy the major portion of one of that programs in the orchestra's regular concert series. He added that a second performance, limited to a mainly university audience, will probably be scheduled.

Piston has not yet announced the theme of the work, but has said it will be his Fourth Symphony.

Piston has been on the Harvard faculty since 1926, after being graduated summa cum laude in 1924 and receiving the John Knowles Paine '69 fellowship for 1924-26. He studied in Paris in 1935 on a Guggenheim fellowship, and is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.