The Grand Rapids Symphony opens its Crowe Horwath Rising Stars Series with a concert created in the spirit of ArtPrize, featuring music inspired by visual art. The concert includes projected images to enhance the listening experience. Associate Conductor John Varineau leads the orchestra in two performances of “ArtPrize Triptychs,” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 6 and at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 7, at St. Cecilia Music Center.
The concert features the world premiere of a work commissioned by the Grand Rapids Symphony. The Symphony invited three composers, who are also Grand Rapids Symphony musicians, to create one movement of a three-movement work titled “ArtPrize Triptych.” The movements are connected by a single musical chord and by a traditional three-movement musical design (fast, slow, fast). The composers found inspiration in an art piece, or an art medium, that could be part of the ArtPrize competition. Each of the composers entered their works in the music category, new to ArtPrize this year.
The Symphony has annually commissioned and performed a new work, inspired by visual art, during the ArtPrize competition. In 2009, the orchestra presented the world premiere of David Lockington’s, “Ceremonial Fantasy Fanfare for ArtPrize.” Last year, audiences experienced Andrew Norman’s “The Great Swiftness,” inspired by Grand Rapids’ Calder sculpture of the same name.
The first movement of “ArtPrize Triptych,” “A Teapot” by Joel Schekman, is a musical composition for full orchestra based on a photograph, not unlike the 19th century tone-poem.
“A Teapot” could be described as a “tone-photo,” says Schekman. “The many colors, shapes, and textures of the photo have been subjectively rendered as sound.”
The triptych’s second movement, “Encaustic for Solo Clarinet and Orchestra" by Alexander Miller, was inspired by encaustic art, a process of painting with melted wax.
The clarinet, played by Suzanna Dennis Bratton, represents the artist and the orchestra represents the wax at various stages of temperature and viscosity,” says Miller. “The music suggests how the artist and the art become interchangeable, ultimately altering each other through the process.”
The triptych’s final movement, "Taking Shape" by Shannon Wood, was inspired by the use of water as an art medium and is a musical representation of how water can transform into various states of matter.
“Water is the universal solvent. Music is the universal language,” says Wood. “Music has a similar ability to transform from a single meme into a larger tangible musical motif.”
Also on the program is a foil to “ArtPrize Triptych” – Respighi’s “Trittico botticelliano” (Botticelli Triptych). Respighi’s inspiration was art, but the composer found his studies of early music valuable in achieving a style that would evoke the works of Sandro Botticelli (c. 1444–1510). Conceived during a visit to Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1927, “Trittico botticelliano” is based on three famous Botticelli paintings that hang in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence: La primavera (Spring), L’adorazione dei Magi (The Adoration of the Magi), and La nascita di Venere (The Birth of Venus). The evening’s program also includes Schubert’s Symphony No. 3.
Two Concert Formats
Crowe Horwath Rising Stars concerts feature an intimate concert hall, a focus on emerging talent and talk from the stage. The Thursday night Thursdays@7 format is a one-hour “re-mix” of the full concert presented on Friday evening, without intermission. Thursdays@7 concerts also feature a post-concert Talkback with the evening’s conductor, composers and guest artists.
Tickets
Tickets start at $18 for the October 6 performance, $26 for the October 7 performance, and are available at the Symphony office, weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 300 Ottawa NW, Suite 100, (located across from the Calder), or by calling 616/454-9451, Ext. 4. (Phone orders will be charged a $2 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum.) Tickets are available at the concert venue beginning one hour prior to the performance. Tickets may also be purchased through Ticketmaster, 800/982-2787, online at www.grsymphony.org, or in person at Ticketmaster outlets: select D&W Fresh Market and Family Fare stores and Walmart. Tickets purchased at these locations will include a Ticketmaster service fee. This is a Student Passport concert.
The Composers and Soloist
Joel Schekman joined the Clarinet section of the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2006. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Clarinet Performance from Indiana University and the University of Southern California, respectively. Schekman has benefited from working with composers including John Adams, Mason Bates, and Roberto Sierra. Recently he premiered his Duo for Flute and Clarinet at the Grand Rapids Art Museum’s Sundays at 2 Chamber Music Series.
Alexander Miller joined the Grand Rapids Symphony as its Assistant Principal Oboe in 1992. Previously, he was a substitute and stage band oboist with the Metropolitan Opera in New York while he completed his Master’s degree at the Juilliard School. During the summer, he plays with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California. Since arriving in Grand Rapids, Mr. Miller has written six orchestral works for the Grand Rapids Symphony.
Shannon Wood joined the Grand Rapids Symphony as Principal Timpanist in 2007. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Percussion Performance and is an Alumni of New World Symphony’s fellowship program. Wood has performed with Atlanta Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic and others. He has recorded with BMI, Cane & Naxos labels and filmed 2 DVDs for Alfred Music Publishing, and performed with P Diddy & Snoop Dogg’s MTV Music Video Awards.
Suzanna Dennis Bratton joined the Grand Rapids Symphony as Principal Clarinet in 1998. She holds undergraduate degrees from Portland State University, a MM from the University of Michigan, and an Artist Diploma degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. As a soloist, she has been featured with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and Akron Symphony Orchestra and has appeared with the Grand Rapids Symphony on the Casual Classics series and as a part of the Mozart and Beethoven Festivals.
About the Grand Rapids Symphony
The Grammy-nominated Grand Rapids Symphony was officially organized in 1930 and is recognized as one of America’s leading regional orchestras. Led by Music Director David Lockington, eight concert series are presented, featuring a wide range of music and performance styles. More than 400 performances are presented each year, touching the lives of some 170,000. Nearly half of those who benefit are students, senior citizens and people with disabilities reached through extensive education and community service programs. The Symphony sponsors the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, Grand Rapids Youth Symphony and Classical Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Choruses, and also provides the orchestra for Opera Grand Rapids and the Grand Rapids Ballet Company. To learn more about the Grand Rapids Symphony, please visit www.grsymphony.org.
These concerts are made possible with support from the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.