The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a new work from Peter Boyer for the Cincinnati Pops, to be premiered and recorded in November 2017.

The new work will be titled In the Cause of the Free, and is currently in progress (summer 2017). The piece reflects on the themes of Veterans Day and signing of the Armistice which ended the hostilities of World War I, the centennial of which will be marked in 2018. The new work will feature a prominent part for solo trumpet. The title is derived from a line in the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, written during “The Great War.”

Boyer’s commission for In the Cause of the Free is part of the Cincinnati Pops’ American Originals, Vol. 2 project, to be premiered and recorded live in concert at the newly-reopened Music Hall in November 2017 (following its $135 million, two-year renovation), and subsequently released on the Fanfare Cincinnati label. This is Boyer’s second commission from the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra, following his Rolling River (Sketches on “Shenandoah”), part of the first American Originals project in 2014.