bainbridge
symphony orchestra

WINDS OF IMAGINATION

Premiering a work commissioned for BSO by Island composer Allen Strange

Guest Conductors:
David Upham and Pat Strange

April 28 & 29 , 2007
Saturday @ 7:30 p.m. + Sunday @ 3:00 p.m.

Tickets:
$15 for adults, and $10 for seniors, military, students and youth

2006-2007 Media Sponsor: Bainbridge Island Review

Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra will be featured on 98.1 KING FM's Northwest Focus the week of April 23 - April 27. Northwest Focus airs on KING FM weeknights at 8:00 p.m. Listen to KING FM on line.


Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra (BSO) celebrates the return of Guest Conductor David Upham for the season’s concluding concerts. Mr. Upham conducted BSO’s rousing finale last season, and this April he guides the musicians in an enticing program featuring Schumann’s masterful Symphony No. 4 and a work commissioned for the BSO by Bainbridge Island composer Allen Strange. Very active in the Seattle area as both conductor and educator, Mr. Upham is currently the conductor of the Classical Orchestra, a part of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra organization, and he is presently completing his DMA in conducting with Maestro Peter Erös at the University of Washington.

Often described as having been written “in one movement”, Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4 actually comprises four distinct movements that are performed without pauses in between. The lyrical introduction presents a musical theme, which transforms into the cheerful Allegro that follows. Three chords fall like hammer blows in the midst of the movement and serve to introduce a second theme. Both themes recur throughout the work, finding their happy union in the finale with its exuberant Presto conclusion.

In its April program, BSO premieres Allen Strange’s Brief Visits to Imaginary Places - a suite of programmatic “ear movies” about four fantasy lands taken from contemporary literature: Misty Magic Land; Avalon Antiqua; Arkham: Thursday at the Mountain of Madness; and Streaming Kingdom: Bong Fields. Each movement is framed and accompanied by a computer generated “soundscape” designed as an equal orchestral voice to the other instruments. Strange composes for live electronic instrumental ensembles, for live and taped electronics with voices and acoustic instruments, and for the theatre. Retired from academia in 2002, he lives on Bainbridge Island, where he pursues a full-time career composing and concertizing with his wife.

The symphony’s April concerts also feature Guest Conductor Pat Strange leading the Bainbridge Symphony Chamber Orchestra in the Quadruple Concerto, a delightful work from 1935 by the young Jean Françaix. With a great affinity for wind instruments, Françaix’ style is marked by lightness and wit as well as a conversational interplay between the musical lines. “Inspired mostly by Ravel and Stravinsky, Françaix tried to develop a new style of composing, always tonal but dissonant, even using elements of jazz. His music might easily be described by the phrase joie de vivre.

Ms. Strange has held prior conducting posts with the San Jose State Chamber Orchestra and the Bainbridge Island Chamber Sinfonietta. She and her husband, Allen Strange have published a book entitled The Contemporary Violin; Extended Performance Techniques available from Scarecrow Press. She currently lives on Bainbridge Island and remains active as a performer, teacher and director of the Island Soundscape Chamber Players.

The performance has one intermission and is suitable for music lovers of all ages.