When composer Ricardo Lorenz began work on a new piece of music in 2021, he was facing a deadline for a commission and unsure at first what his work would become. To his great delight, it became an exciting story bookended by inspiration from and memories of childhood.

For Lorenz, Professor of Composition and chair of the Composition Area at Michigan State University, this wasn’t just some ordinary commission he took on, nor was the premiere less than a year later an ordinary premiere. This was a work commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Gustavo Dudamel, premiering at Disney Hall in California. One of the top orchestras in the world, led by one of the most famous conductors in the world, and performed at one of the premier performance halls in the world. The pressure was on.

“You know, you're coming out of the pandemic hiatus, and you think your career is over because nobody is going to concerts, and you start to think people are going to forget about live music,” Lorenz said. “Suddenly, I get an email from the LA Philharmonic, and it was a complete surprise. This was completely unexpected.”

An LA Phil effort called the Pan-American Music Initiative triggered the email. Lorenz was asked to compose one of 30 new commissions for the LA Phil for year two of a five-year program. The initiative also included a commission and premiere by College of Music DMA alumnus and former Lorenz student Gonzalo Garrido-Lecca.

“When you write one of these pieces, even though it's a short opener, it's sort of like going to Mount Everest and back. You put everything into it,” Lorenz said. “Since I got the email in May of 2021 and had to submit the piece in March of 2022, I had less than a year to complete it.”

The result is a piece Lorenz titled Todo Terreno. It means all terrain, which is what four-wheel vehicles are called in his home country of Venezuela. The eight and a half minute work for symphony orchestra with complex percussion was first inspired by the cuatro, a stringed instrument similar to a small classical guitar that Lorenz has been familiar with since childhood. After working in that direction, the music began to draw him to a memory that ultimately inspired the piece. 

“I had an off-roading experience in Venezuela, and we were in this very cumbersome terrain. My brother and sister-in-law were there, and as we’re going over this terrain I look through these bushes and see this gorgeous prairie near Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world,” Lorenz explained. “For a moment, there was a dissonance between how I was trying to maneuver the car and this pleasant, beautiful, peaceful, serene scene unfolding in front of us.”

The piece, he said, moves suddenly from jumpiness to a beautiful, long melody, as though something bigger, spiritual, even religious, presents itself as a metaphor for life.

“After all the struggles that we are going through in life, there is that higher end,” Lorenz said. 

He sees the work as a nostalgic look at what Venezuela has represented for him. It still lives in him, whether through an instrument like the cuatro or through nature. 

“That's what I love about the work of composers, that you can take something that's very personal, very meaningful to you, and based on your own life experiences in history, but you create something that's relatable to other people,” Lorenz said.

And, relate he did. The original plan was for Lorenz to attend an LA Phil rehearsal of his piece so he could provide feedback. Though awestruck at the skill of musicians he calls “supernatural,” he found it helpful to provide tips, especially on tempo. Dudamel, also a native of Venezuela, enjoyed the opportunity to communicate with Lorenz in Spanish and interpret the feedback to the orchestra in English. Lorenz described Dudamel and the orchestra as “perfection, with an incredible discipline and exuberant musicality.”

It seems the admiration was mutual. After Todo Terreno made its premiere on Thursday, May 12, the response was enthusiastic from concertgoers and the orchestra. Season ticket holders told Lorenz that they normally do not look forward to the new, short, opening pieces, but his piece they would enjoy hearing again. Other composers also praise his work.

“As soon as I heard Ricardo’s new work from a live recording, I knew it was something special,” said renowned composer and MSU Associate Professor of Composition Zhou Tian. “The relentless energy, the fantastic orchestral colors, and the expert craftsmanship make it a brilliant concert opener. It’s such a high octane piece; it will shine in any program. In fact, when I called Ricardo after listening to it, I joked, ‘are you sure you are not 25?,’ which is to say that this feels like a new beginning for a composer with unlimited possibilities.” 

Even more, Dudamel adjusted the program planned for the next night to include a completely unplanned repeat performance of Lorenz’s work.

“At first, you're numb. You're in awe of everything, with the hall, the meeting of the conductor for the first time, and the quality of the music that they were rehearsing,” Lorenz explained. By the time Todo Terreno premiered, he said, “I actually felt very safe because I had heard how good this piece was sounding. I was not nervous for a change! I was just excited to experience the response of the audience. I had a chance to give a pre-concert talk, and it is part of sharing this human point of view. There is rapport. There is a feeling that it's genuine, it’s real. There are no pretensions.”

The authenticity of his work, the real connection he feels to the music, is the reason Lorenz feels his work is relatable to audiences and musicians.

“I feel genuine, but at the same time, in an accessible way. There is excitement in the piece and joyous moments, as well as sentiment and emotions,” he said. “I think this is perhaps one of the best times I've been able to achieve that.”

In the end, Lorenz said he felt accomplished, well-taken care of by the LA Phil, and extremely satisfied with the overwhelmingly positive reaction to his latest work.

“I told my son I felt like I was coming back from Disney World when I was 11 years old,” Lorenz said.

The perfect nostalgic end to what began with a memory from long ago.