NEWS
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Nov 04, 2009
Mendelssohn, Haydn, and a World Premiere by a Rock Star
Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance
The Tucson Symphony MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra comes to the Northwest with its first program of the 2009-'10 season, performing Mendelssohn and Haydn as well as the world premiere of a composition by rock star C.F. "Kip" Winger.
The Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance brings the world premier of Winger's "Ghosts" to Oro Valley on Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Canyon Del Oro High School. Other TSO performances are Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at Catalina Foothills High School.
Music Director and Conductor George Hanson conducts the TSO in the Overture to Felix Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave, Franz Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 101, "The Clock," and in Winger's "Ghosts: Suite No. 1 for Orchestra."
Musician/composer C.F. Winger discovered his passion for music at an early age. His parents were jazz musicians, and he began studying piano at age six. Two years later, he began playing professionally with his two older brothers. He began studying classical guitar and composition when he was still in his teens.
In the early 1990s with his band, Winger, he released the platinum recordings Winger, In the Heart of the Young and Pull, and led the quartet on sold-out world tours. Winger played bass with Alice Cooper, sang with the Alan Parsons Project, played with The Who's Roger Daltrey and has performed with Bob Dylan.
London's Classic Rock Magazine called him "one of the most gifted composers and arrangers in the rock genre" and praised his "compulsion to experiment."
While topping the charts, Winger continued to pursue his interest in composition.
Professor Michael Kurek from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University praised Winger for his "great ear and innate musical sensitivity" resulting in "beautifully crafted phrases and nuance."
A recording of Ghosts conducted by Lynn Bingham, assistant conductor of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, featuring New York Philharmonic associate principal Lisa Kim on violin, drew the attention of the TSO's composer-in residence, Dan Coleman.
The TSO's world premiere performance of "Ghosts" will be followed by the San Francisco Ballet's February premiere of the new ballet top choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has created to accompany the 20-minute composition. Later in November, Winger and his band start a world tour in Rome, with stops in Paris, Belgium, Holland, Moscow, Greece, Denmark, Eastern Europe, Spain and England.
The Mendelssohn and Haydn program opens with Felix Mendelssohn's sonic interpretation of Fingal's Cave in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. The cave's Gallic name means "the cave of music," because when the water is calm enough, visitors can row into the 227-foot-long cave and revel in the sound of the waves. Closing the program is Haydn't Symphony No. 101, later subtitled "The Clock" because of the sound of the tick-tock accompaniment of bassoon and plucked strings in the second movement.
The MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra Series receives generous support from Drs. John P. and Helen S. Schaefer.
MasterWorks Series single tickets, priced at $30 to $40, are available at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Box Office located at 2175 N. Sixth Avenue, or by phone at 882-8585. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.tucsonsymphony.org.
For tickets to the SAACA presentation at CDO, visit www.saaca.org or call 797-3959.
TSO MasterWorks Chamber Orchestra
Mendelssohn, Haydn and the premiere of "Ghosts" by Kip Winger
Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at Canyon Del Oro High School.
Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at Catalina Foothills High School.
Tickets, $30 to $40, at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Box Office, by phone at 882-8585, at www.tucsonsymphony.org, and at www.saaca.org, or 797-3959.
