The Boston Modern Orchestra Project celebrates its landmark 50th release with music of the beloved American composer Steven Stucky, who passed away in February 2016. Described once as “America’s composer-in-residence” by The New Yorker, Stucky’s collaborative spirit was epitomized in his 20-plus-year relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the longest on record between a composer and an American orchestra. Stucky’s profound sense of orchestral colour, texture and synthesis of modern and contemporary musical currents has an influence on his classic work Concerto for Orchestra. Rhapsodies is a short, dramatic flight full of rich sonorities. The title work, American Muse, sets four iconic American poets—John Berryman, e. e. cummings, A. R. Ammon, and Walt Whitman—in strikingly evocative vignettes featuring distinguished baritone Sanford Sylvan. The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, led by Gil Rose, pursues its mission of advocacy for contemporary musical voices with its well-known virtuosity, exactitude, and warmth.