Entling No. 2 wanted me to know that the Dallas Symphony will perform The Composer is Dead next June. This orchestral work is a collaboration of A Series of Unfortunate Events author Lemony Snicket and composer Nathaniel Stookey. The work premiered in San Francisco a year ago. The book and CD are to released in 2008. The news release from HarperCollins describes the work:

The Composer Is Dead engages listeners with a gripping plot—in this case, a whodunit murder mystery—while the music and Snicket’s narration work together to provide an entertaining introduction to the instruments of the orchestra, in the vein of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

Mr. Snicket adds:

“Ever since I was a boy, classical music has made me weep uncontrollably. I hope The Composer Is Dead does the same for a new generation. It’s certainly either alarmingly original or originally alarming.”

G. Schirmer music publishers website.