2017-2018 is shaping up to be a benchmark year for composer Michael Gilbertson filled with old friends and new adventures. He will bring his ‘delectably subtle’ (Baltimore Sun) compositional voice to his newly completed Trumpet Concerto, set to premiere with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra on October 14th & 15th. The new work is a showcase for the trumpet as Gilbertson aims at capturing the instrument’s wide breadth of color and character and simultaneously paying homage to Giovanni Gabrieli, lyrical jazz, and brisk Troika. Co-Commissioned by the Dubuque Symphony and Cheyenne Symphony, the Dubuque premiere will feature soloist Manny Laureano, Principal Trumpet for the Minnesota Orchestra, while the Wyoming premiere with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra will feature Brandon Ridenour, a former member of the Canadian Brass. This concerto will be the seventh work of Gilbertson’s that the Dubuque Symphony orchestra has performed. 
Gilbertson was part of the annual Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music this past summer; his new orchestral work, Fool’s Gold, was first premiered during the Festival’s young Conductors/Composers Workshop. Recently relocated to the West Coast and a new faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Gilbertson now joins the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra as their inaugural Broadcast Music Foundation Composer-in-Residence. This residency will ultimately culminate in three newly commissioned works over the next three years. The first work, Concerto for Chamber Orchestra, will premiere in April 2018 with conductor Benjamin Simon. Another highlight for this season includes a new commission with the Philadelphia-based Grammy-nominated choir The Crossing in December 2017. It will be an exciting concert season for Gilbertson and listeners!