About two decades ago, I remember the world premiere of “Millennium Fantasy” for piano and orchestra by American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. The soloist was pianist Jeffrey Biegel, who performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Jesús López-Cobos. It was commissioned by a consortium of 27 orchestras — still a novel idea at the time. Zwilich became one of my favorite composers.

Now the talents of Jeffrey Biegel and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich have come together in the creation of “Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” honoring the late Supreme Court Justice. It will be premiered tonight by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya in Meyerson Symphony Center.

Zwilich’s new composition pays homage to and remembers Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the first anniversary of her death in September 2020. The new work will feature texts by poet/librettist Lauren K. Watel and will be performed by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves – one of Justice Ginsburg’s favorite opera singers, who sang at her memorial – and pianist Jeffrey Biegel.

Zwilich said that its three movements, entitled “Act I,” “Act II” and “Act III,” reflect the three stages of the voyage of Justice Ginsburg’s remarkable professional life.

“Writing this has been a moving experience for me as I traveled metaphorically on the passionate voyage of her life,” she said, in a statement.

After Justice Ginsburg’s death, Biegel began pursuing the new work, partly inspired by Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait” — a work that was premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony — he says in a video on the Dallas Symphony website. He approached Zwilich, who said the idea gave her “goosebumps,” as well as Graves, who immediately said she was on board with the project.

Zwilich says that her work begins and ends with the word “justice.”

“We tried with metaphor and music to put that into words, that what she’s left behind is a kind of cornerstone,” Zwilich says in the video.

Biegel will also perform a work of his own composition: “Reflection of Justice: An Ode to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

Justice Ginsburg, of course, was a lover of classical music, and especially opera. There have been many tributes to her legacy in visual art, but this may be the most significant and ambitious tribute in the classical music realm.

Even so, raising money during a pandemic wasn’t easy. It was a co-commission of the Dallas Symphony, but there was also a piece of the funding that needed to be completed, and Biegel accomplished that, too. This AP story offers the description of how he found “innovative donations” to find the last pieces to the puzzle.

Information: dallassymphony.org