Percussion in the Forefront for CSO’s Opening Night
CANTON, OHIO (Sept. 17, 2015) – October 3, 2015 is opening night for the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) 2015-2016 MasterWorks Series. The concert, titled “Heroes Among Us”, features percussionist Colin Currie who will be guest soloist on a piece by Christopher Rouse. The concert will be performed at 8:00pm at Umstattd Performing Arts Hall adjacent to the Zimmermann Symphony Center at 2323 17th Street NW. The pre-concert lecture, free to all ticket concert ticket holders, begins at 7:00pm.
Currie is Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre where in the fall of 2014 he was the focus of a major percussion festival. His percussion ensemble, The Colin Currie Group, has performed throughout the UK and Europe and has recorded many concerto, recital and chamber works. The piece Currie will perform, Christopher Rouse’s Der Gerettete Alberich (Alberich Saved), is described as a fantasy for solo percussionist and orchestra on themes of Wagner. Alberich is a character from Richard Wagner’s opera Götterdämmerung and becomes the “hero” of Rouse’s piece.
Other pieces on the program also celebrate heroics of some kind. Joan Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which opens the program, is a “tribute to the countless women whose uncommon courage…have played a decisive role in history” (Kenneth C. Viant in program notes for the piece). Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries opens the second act of his opera, Die Walküre where the heroine returns from battle. The piece has also become part of pop culture due to its use in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Closing out the performance is Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 which was written during World War II and had its debut as the Russian army was near victory over the Germans.
Tickets for the concert range from $25-$45. There are senior, student and group discounts available. Tickets and the full concert season schedule are available at www.cantonsymphony.org, by calling (330) 452-2094, at the Zimmermann Symphony Center – 2331 17th Street NW in Canton – weekdays from 10am-2pm or at the Umstattd Performing Arts Hall box office beginning one hour and fifteen minutes before the performance.
Founded in 1937, the Canton Symphony Orchestra is a fully professional ensemble and organization dedicated to performing concerts that enrich, educate and entertain. Under the direction of Gerhardt Zimmermann, the orchestra performs classical, pops, holiday, and educational programs. Most performances are in Umstattd Performing Arts Hall, adjacent to the Zimmermann Symphony Center 2331 17th Street NW, Canton, Ohio. Parking at the Zimmermann Symphony Center is free. For more information, please visit www.CantonSymphony.org.
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