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Symphony welcomes guest violinist

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  • Symphony welcomes guest violinist

    Mobile Register, AL
    Oct 1 2005

    Symphony welcomes guest violinist
    Saturday, October 01, 2005

    By THOMAS B. HARRISON
    Arts Editor

    Achange of seasons brings a change of venue for Mobile Symphony
    Orchestra, and seldom has a concert more aptly fit the space.

    Call it kismet, serendipity, a lucky break or a happy accident, but
    next weekend the orchestra and its audience will be precisely where
    they should be when the MSO presents an intimate evening highlighted
    by Antonio Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." (See information box.)

    Not that it was designed this way. Hardly that.

    As it does every October, BayFest takes over downtown Mobile for the
    weekend, so Mobile Symphony was compelled to leave the friendly
    confines of the Saenger Theatre for Midtown.

    Thus, one Saturday evening concert will become a Saturday-Sunday dual
    performance in the auditorium of the Alabama School of Mathematics
    and Science at 1255 Dauphin St.

    The intimate setting and tranquil melodies of Vaughan Williams,
    Handel and Vivaldi should offer a respite from the madding crowds and
    relentless noise of downtown's high-decibel bacchanal.

    The space seats fewer than half the Saenger's 1,900 capacity, but the
    acoustics are excellent and the theater should accommodate Vivaldi as
    well as the other two selections on the program: Handel's Concerto
    Grosso in F Major, Op. 3, No. 4; and Ralph Vaughan Williams' lovely
    "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis."

    Under the direction of Scott Speck, the orchestra will be joined by
    violin soloist Ida Kavafian, known for her intensity, exemplary
    musicianship and experience playing chamber music.

    Born in Istanbul of Armenian parents, Kavafian is an active chamber
    musician and has played chamber festivals and series worldwide. She
    has toured and recorded as violist with the Guarneri String Quartet
    and is an active participant with the Chamber Music Society of
    Lincoln Center, of which she is an artist member.

    Christina Littlejohn, executive director (and cellist) for Mobile
    Symphony, says the program offers the sort of challenge a growing
    orchestra requires.

    It's important for the orchestra to play different styles of music,"
    she says. "As we grow, it is important for us not to play just
    Tchaikovsky.

    "The nice thing about Vivaldi is you have to listen really hard, and
    it forces you to remain focused. With the other music, the melodies
    just capture you and send you away, but with Vivaldi and chamber
    music your ears have to be wide open. It's so intimate you're really
    working as a team."

    Littlejohn cannot recall the last time the orchestra performed
    Vivaldi -- certainly not in the past decade since Mobile Symphony was
    reconstituted. Same with Handel's Concerto Grosso.

    The last performance of Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia" likely came
    during the hurricane-delayed 1998-99 season under then-interim
    conductor Jerome Shannon.

    Because of the move and the Sunday matinee performance, there will be
    no open dress rehearsal for the "Four Seasons" concert, says
    Littlejohn.

    Next week also brings the first of the orchestra's three composers in
    residence. Kenji Bunch, the talented violist, composer and teacher,
    will be in Mobile throughout the week for a series of educational
    outreach programs and performances at area schools and libraries.

    Mobile Symphony received a $150,000 grant from "Music Alive," created
    in 1999, a joint program of Meet the Composer and the American
    Symphony Orchestra League. Funds allow a three-year residency
    project, beginning this season, with Bunch, Mason Bates and Kevin
    Puts.

    The residency offers each an opportunity to create a new symphonic
    work and to interact with the orchestra on educational activities.

    Mobilians are quite fond of Bunch, who enjoyed a two-week residency
    in 2003 and returned for concerts in Fairhope and the University of
    South Alabama, where he performed "A Bunch of PDQ Bach."

    For Mobile Symphony the composer will produce a commissioned work,
    "The Face of Mobile," to be performed during the orchestra's 10th
    anniversary season, 2007-08.

    Littlejohn says Bunch might join the orchestra next weekend during
    Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia."

    Speck describes Bunch as "a phenom," and superlatives seem to follow
    the young composer wherever he goes. A superb violist, Bunch has
    played with Yo-Yo Ma, and he has developed quite a following for his
    bluegrass career.

    Bunch will bring the "citified" sound of his group Citigrass to town
    in June 2006 for the season-ending pops concert, "A Bunch of
    Bluegrass."

    "I don't know anything he hasn't been able to do," says Speck.

    Bunch might well add to his list of accomplishments during BayFest,
    where he hopes to take the stage and perform at least one tune with a
    group he admires: Widespread Panic.
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