A Dramatic Year for the TSO

May 10, 2015

Dance, film, painting, choral works and world-class soloists boost the excitement and energy of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra’s 2015-16 season. This multi-genre vision from conductor Kevin Rhodes promises to make the TSO’s next season even more dynamic than the last.

"I’m a creature of the theater," Rhodes said. "Throughout the years, I’ve brought in orchestral scores for silent films, semi-staged musicals and opera, but this year we decided to bring theatrical elements into more of the programs and to do it in different ways than in the past."

The Natural World

The season’s first concert will feature internationally renowned violinist Hal Grossman as the TSO takes the audience on a musical tour of the natural world via Vivaldi’s "Four Seasons."

Rhodes has special praise for Grossman’s tone and technique.

"I’ve done the piece with a lot of different violinists, but I’ve always particularly loved Hal’s way of attacking the piece. And I mean that in the most positive way possible. It is truly something quite special."

Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s "Symphony No. 2, The Four Temperaments" will round out this opening performance. In honor of Nielsen’s sesquicentennial birthday, concertgoers worldwide will experience the beauty of the composer’s inventive modulations and his challenges to previous symphonic structures.

"The "˜Four Temperaments’ is as much as anything a successor to Brahms," Rhodes said. "Nielsen has been gaining more and more recognition. His name is still not a household word, but it’s getting there. His symphonies are amazing and it’s very exciting material for the orchestra."

Fireworks

This all-Brahms concert continues the TSO’s popular "Fireworks" series, which showcases Rhodes’ thoughts on various major composers and their works.

"We’ve had this type of concert for several years now and they’ve been well received," Rhodes said. He added that visual information about Brahms – as well as help from special guests presenting chamber music, vocal music and piano – will "give the audience a chance to learn more about the famous conductor and the pieces we’ll be playing."

The program will include the light-hearted "Academic Overture." Based on old school songs, the overture features something not at all common to orchestral performances: audience participation.

"But don’t worry, it will not be like school – and there’ll be no grades taken," he said.

Also on the docket is the TSO’s premiere of Brahms’ majestic and moving "Symphony No. 4." Premiered in 1885 and the last of his four symphonies, this well-known piece is the only one of his symphonies ending in a minor key.

Special guests from the orchestra and the community will contribute short ensemble performances of Brahms’ work to round out the program.

Mozart and Back

Internationally acclaimed pianist Peter Serkin joins the TSO to perform Mozart’s "Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major No. 1 (K459)" and Bach’s "Keyboard Concerto in D minor."

"We’re extremely pleased to have a musician of Peter Serkin’s stature perform with us," Rhodes said.

Serkin has performed with leading orchestras around the world, under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez and James Levine. His career has included collaborations with such celebrated artists as Yo-Yo Ma and the Guarneri Quartet.

This concert will also offer Ravel’s "Le tombeau de Couperin" (the tomb of Couperin).

In this reflective and moving piece, Ravel uses several themes by Couperin, dedicating each movement to a friend killed in WWI.

The Holidays

The annual "Home for the Holidays" concerts at Lars Hockstad Auditorium represent a festive holiday homecoming not only for natives of the region, but also for guest conductor Octavio Más-Arocas, former orchestra conductor at Interlochen Arts Academy. Now Director of Orchestral Studies and the Symphony Orchestra at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music and Resident Conductor at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Más- Arocas takes the podium as the NMC Grand Traverse Chorale and Children’s Choir return for this spirited annual concert.

In 2011, Más-Arocs was awarded the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Scholarship, which included working as an assistant to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and sharing the podium with Maestro Kurt Masur.

Judith

Music, dance and video unite in this performance of American composer William Schuman’s "Judith," a piece commissioned in the 1950s by choreographer/dancer Martha Graham for the Louisville Symphony. Although no complete record of Graham’s original choreography exists, dancers from the Peter Sparling Dance Company will interpret the piece choreographically.

Sparling, honored professor of dance at the University of Michigan and a dancer who studied with Graham, will also bring a "screendance" to the performance, which includes live dancers backed by film/projections, accompanied by the TSO.

Sparling also has a Traverse City connection. He is the brother-in-law of TSO cellist and Director of Civic Strings Educational Ensembles, Lynne Tobin.

"We discovered Peter’s connection to Martha Graham and her company," Rhodes said.

"So, first of all, we thought how interesting to work with someone who worked with, and knew, her, and could create a new choreography to this score. Then we found out one of Peter’s interests is combining film with dance during a live music performance."

Rounding out the March 20 program, the TSO will collaborate with the NMC Grand Traverse Chorale in Haydn’s moving "Mass in C Major" (Mass in Time of War), a piece Rhodes calls "absolutely amazing and powerful."

More Fireworks

In the second "Fireworks" concert of the season, Maestro Rhodes will lead the TSO in an all-Beethoven program that includes the "Leonore Overture No. 3" and "Symphony No. 6" (Pastoral).

The "Leonore Overture" is one of the liveliest and most joyous mainstays in the classical orchestra repertoire. Beethoven’s beloved "Sixth Symphony" – the first symphony to very deliberately depict the beauty and power of nature – will feature a special treat for concertgoers.

"While listening to this wonderful pastoral work, the audience will watch artist Delbert Michel create a painting inspired by the piece," Rhodes explained. The painting will be projected onto a large screen in real-time as Michel works.

To round things out, several young pianists from the region will perform with an emphasis on Beethoven pieces.

All-American

In the final concert of the season, two-time Grammy-winning jazz pianist Bob James will perform his "Piano Concerto." James is recognized as one of the early practitioners of smooth jazz.

Concertgoers will recognize quintessentially American dance forms, hymns and folk music elements in the program’s second piece: Aaron Copland’s "Appalachian Spring." One of the most recognizable of all American compositions, "Appalachian Spring" ending variations are based on the Shaker tune, "Simple Gifts."

Furthering this season’s connection to dance, the concert will end with Stravinsky’s "vigorous and exuberant" "Firebird Suite." Written for the 1910 Paris season of the Ballets Russes, and immediately popular with public and critics alike, "Firebird" represented a major breakthrough in Stravinsky’s career.

The Phantom

Apart from the regular TSO concert series, music and film lovers get the opportunity to hear Kevin Rhodes – an accomplished pianist – as he improvises on the keys during two showings of the 1920s silent film, "Phantom of the Opera." Show times are at 1pm and 2pm at the State Theater in downtown Traverse City.

The Crescendo

Season tickets are available now and subscribers enjoy up to 20 percent savings and first seating selection. Single ticket and online sales begin June 1. For ticket information, call 231- 947-7120 or visit traversesymphony.org.

The 2015-16 season sponsor is Chemical Bank. Guest soloists and chorus appearances are sponsored by Cordia at Grand Traverse Commons. The season media sponsor is WCCW FM.

All 2015-16 concerts will be held Sundays at 3pm in the Corson Auditorium on the Interlochen Center for the Arts campus with the exception of Home for the Holidays (Saturday, December 12 at 7:30pm and Sunday, December 13 at 3pm at Lars Hockstad Auditorium in Traverse City) and the June 4 concert featuring Bob James (Saturday, June 4 at 7:30pm).