Chamber Music Series final concert of the season

For the final concert of the season both of the Great Falls Symphony’s resident Core Ensembles combine forces for Mix And Match, bringing audiences selections from both string quartet and wind quintet repertoire plus two tangos by Astor Piazzola arranged for strings and winds by the Chinook Winds’ Dorian Antipa. Mix and Match concerts take place on May 21st at the First Congregational UCC and on May 23rd at the C.M. Russell Museum. Both concerts will include a reception where concert attendees are welcome to enjoy refreshments and mingle with the performers. Admission is $15 Adults / $5 Students. For more information, contact the Symphony office at 406-453-4102 or visit www.gfsymphony.org.

In the Mix and Match program, members of both the Chinook Winds and Cascade Quartet will share the stage to perform a variety of pieces for string quartet, wind quintet, and mixed ensemble. The Cascade Quartet will perform Four Miniatures, a work influenced by the folk songs and traditions of Sulkhan Tsintsadze, a cellist and native of Gori (now the country of Georgia). The Chinook Winds will perform Nikola Resanovic’s Drones and Nanorhythms, which incorporates improvisatory elements akin to Balkan Music and features English horn in the second movement.

The program also features the two newest members of the Great Falls Symphony’s Core. Lauren Blackberby, Mary Papoulis, Maria Ritzenthaler, and Thad Suits will perform Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F Major. Dorian Antipa, Mary Papoulis, and Thad Suits will perform Trio No. 2 in C Major by François-René Gebauer, a French composer who studied with one of Mozart’s contemporaries, François Devienne.

Audiences will also be treated to two of Astor Piazzola’s tangos, Fugata and Soledad, arranged by the Chinook Winds’ Dorian Antipa for a mix of winds and strings. “I specifically chose to arrange Piazzolla pieces that are not part of his standard works that everybody knows”, says Dorian. “Soledad, which translates to ‘loneliness’ or ‘solitude,’ is a beautifully evocative piece that perfectly fits its descriptive title. By contrast, Fugata is an exciting and playful little fugue.”