On March 13-15, 2026, The New Century Chamber Orchestra presents the world premiere of Bubble Chamber by Nathaniel Stookey. Led by NCCO Music Director and Concertmaster Daniel Hope, performances of Bubble Chamber take place at First Church UCC in Berkeley, the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere Tiburon.
Commissioned by New Century Chamber Orchestra, Bubble Chamber was written in honor of philanthropist and arts patron Gordon Getty, to whom the orchestra has dedicated its 2025–2026 Luminaries season. The work joins a program that also features Joseph Bologne's Violin Concerto in A Major, with Hope as soloist.
Inspired by the celebratory spirit of its commission, Bubble Chamber draws on the image of bubbles rising through a glass of Champagne. Stookey translates this visual phenomenon into music through rapid, continuous motion and intricate counterpoint, creating a shimmering texture of interweaving lines for string orchestra and violin soloist. The title also references the scientific “bubble chamber,” a device invented by Berkeley physicist Donald Glaser that reveals subatomic particles through the trails they leave in superheated liquid. This idea parallels the fleeting yet traceable patterns of motion heard throughout the work.
The premiere underscores Stookey’s longstanding connection to the Bay Area musical community. At age 17, he became the youngest composer ever commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony—an early milestone in a career distinguished by wit, narrative flair, and emotional immediacy. His most popular work is The Composer is Dead, the narrated orchestral “whodunit” written with his high school friend Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket. Since its premiere, the piece has been performed by hundreds of orchestras worldwide and remains a mainstay of contemporary orchestral programming. 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the work.
More recently, Stookey has turned his gifts toward the operatic stage. His opera Bulrusher, based on the play by Eisa Davis and adapted by Davis and Stookey, was commissioned by West Edge Opera and developed with Cincinnati Opera through its Opera Fusion: New Works initiative.
For specific inquiries about this composer, please contact Allen Pearcy Galeana.
