"Extremity of the Sky," a concerto for piano and orchestra by Melinda Wagner '79, received rave reviews for its debut by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. on March 23.
In a review of the concert (3/24/06), Tim Page of The Washington Post wrote "Far and away the best music of the night came with Melinda Wagner's 'Extremity of Sky,' a concerto for piano and orchestra that melds high modernism with prismatic color and romantic fancy. It is in four movements, contains a whopper of a part for pianist (here the estimable Emanuel Ax) and combines assertive mantric chiming with soft, neoimpressionist chords. Imagine Elliott Carter and Olivier Messiaen teaming up to write a concerto, add a certain lithe sense of mystery that is Wagner's own and you'll have some idea of 'Extremity of Sky.'" Wagner won a Pulitzer Prize for music composition in 1999.