Opening Weekend with the ASO: Turtle Island World Premiere and Symphonie Fantastique
Posted Sep 12, 2011 | Press Releases,
Turtle Island Quartet has been pushing the boundaries of classical crossover since 1985, performing everything from John Coltrane to Jimi Hendrix and winning a 2008 Grammy award for best crossover artist. On October 8th and 9th, two members of TIQ join the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra as they perform two works by Turtle Island violinist and founding member David Balakrishnan, including the world premiere of his Force of Nature, a cello concerto written for his colleague Mark Summer.
The concert concludes with the ASO performing Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz’s nightmarish program symphony of unrequited love, paranoia, and self-destruction. The hero of the story is falls in love at first sight but is subsequently rebuffed by his beloved (based on Berlioz’s own experience with famous actress Harriet Smithson). The music follows him into a downward spiral of drug-induced hallucinations that includes a walk to the guillotine and a visit to a witches’ coven.
Saturday, October 8, 2011, 8 p.m. and Sunday, October 9, 2011, 3 p.m.
Kim Allen Kluge, conductor
David Balakrishnan, violin and Mark Summer, cello, members of the Turtle Island Quartet
BALAKRISHNAN: Little Mouse Jumps, David Balakrishnan, violin
BALAKRISHNAN: Force of Nature*, Mark Summer, cello
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique
*world premiere
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center, 3001 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA
Tickets: start at $35 adult, $30 senior, $10 students and $5 for youth (18 & under). Join Colleen Fay for a free preconcert chat one hour prior to each performance in the Concert Hall. Free parking. 703-548-0885.
