Introducing Five American Portraits
To mark America’s 250th birthday, Orchestra Lumos and Music Director Michael Stern will give the world premiere on April 18 and 19, 2026, of Five American Portraits, an exploration of individuals and phenomena that left an extraordinary and indelible mark on our nation.
The five American composers selected for the project are Clarice Assad, Liam Cummins, Quinn Mason, Nicky Sohn, and Christopher Theofanidis. Michael Stern asked each composer to write a short piece about a person or entity who, in their view, has influenced our country’s trajectory and contributed to the American story.
The commission is made possible by the Orchestra Lumos Commissioning Club, a consortium of more than a dozen donors who have been involved from the beginning of the project.
“The original premise of the piece was to commission a new work to commemorate our country’s 250th birthday. But our commissioning club quickly realized that it wouldn’t be as compelling to represent the breadth of America’s story with just one voice. That thought sparked the idea of inviting a range of composers — of different ages, backgrounds, and individual stories —to approach their part of the work from a personal perspective,” said Stern.
Stern continued, “I asked each composer to write about something or someone meaningful to them that had, in their view, contributed significantly to the narrative of our country. It was so interesting to me that not one of them selected what we might call ‘the usual suspects,’ such as traditional political or historical figures. What emerged through their lenses was a beautiful collection of portraits which reflects musically the ideal of E Pluribus Unum — the core value of our Great American Experiment.”
