The Great Falls Symphony's 2018-2019 Chamber Music Series
The Great Falls Symphony presents the 2018-2019 Chamber Music Series featuring its Core Ensembles, the Chinook Winds and the Cascade Quartet. This year the Cascade Quartet welcomes new violist, Alyssa Roggow, who moved from Rochester, New York to join the Great Falls Community this summer. This season is also a special one for new chamber music compositions with new premieres to be presented on three different concert programs.
The Cascade Quartet’s Reel Time: Music from the Movies concerts are on Sunday, October 14, 2pm at the First Congregational Church UCC and Tuesday, October 16, 7pm at the University of Providence. “The intimate, heartfelt music composed for string quartet is some of the greatest art ever conceived,” cellist Thad Suits states with conviction. String quartet musicians tend to be enthusiastic and passionate, much like the music they love to perform. One of the most heart-rending themes ever written for quartet will be featured in the October “Reel Time” concerts. Barber’s String Quartet features his famous and beloved Adagio in the second movement. It’s been used time and again in movie soundtracks, most notably Platoon. The Cascade Quartet is also thrilled to present a new composition by Sam Krahn, set to an old silent film.
The Chinook Winds will present New Frontiers performances on Sunday, November 11, 2pm at First Congregational Church UCC and Tuesday, November 13, 7pm at the University of Providence. “We enjoy branching out and presenting a diversity of woodwind repertoire from the classics through today,” says bassoonist Dorian Antipa. “We’re starting our season in November with a new composition by John Steinmetz, an American bassoonist/composer living in California.” Steinmetz's composition is the product of a collective project led by the Phoenix Based wind quintet, Mill Ave Chamber Players.
On Sunday, December 9, at 2pm (First Congregational Church UCC) and Tuesday, December 11, 7pm (University of Providence) the Cascade Quartet presents a program entitled The Harp. The featured piece, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74, is nicknamed “The Harp” for the characteristic pizzicato flourishes of alternating notes reminiscent of the plucking of a harp. This work is an example of pure Beethoven, fully mature–rich, solid and tuneful. In these December performances, audiences will also hear Shostakovich mixing alternating colors of sweet nostalgia with haunting mystery.
The Chinook Winds’ Airs of Eastern Europe concerts showcases a broad mix of styles. The program includes an angsty, dissonant, even “pointy” work by György Kurtág that reflects the challenge of living under Soviet rule in occupied Hungary. Audiences will also hear the fun, accessible, yet unpredictable 1932 Quintet for Wind Instruments by highly acclaimed female Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz. Concerts are on Sunday, January 13, 2pm at the University of Providence and Tuesday, January 15, 7pm at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Great Falls.
The Cascade Quartet’s February concerts feature a single, epic work: Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ. There’s a sweeping range of emotions in this passion story of Jesus Christ. Haydn tenderly portrays weeping to accompany “Why hast thou forsaken me?” and you’ll hear resignation and acceptance with “It is finished.” Between movements, a narrator will read from sacred and secular texts building tension that leads to the absolutely earth-shattering final section after the crucifixion. Performances will be on Sunday, February 24, 2pm at the First Congregational Church UCC and Tuesday, February 26, 7pm at the University of Providence.
On Sunday, March 24, 2pm (University of Providence) and Tuesday, March 26, 7pm (Masonic Lodge) the Chinook Winds present All That Jazz. The quintet will showcase the jazzy influences of American composers, including the rumba rhythms of Valerie Coleman’s 2005 Afro-Cuban Concerto and Lalo Shifrin’s tango-tinged La Nouvelle Orleans. Audience members will experience how Elliot Carter pushes boundaries with his take on be-bop, jazz motives, and syncopated energy of the 1940s and ’50s. Carter is considered one of America’s greatest composers, writing right up until his death at age 103.
For the season finale, the Cascade Quartet and Chinook Winds combine forces for Complementary Colors on Sunday, May 19, 2pm at the First Congregational Church UCC and Tuesday, May 21, 7pm at the University of Providence. The ensembles will also be joined by guest artist Mark Bergman, Bass Professor and Director of Strings and Orchestral Studies at Sheridan College. This eclectic program includes works for various wind and string ensembles by Prokofiev, Schulhoff, and Strauss, plus a new composition for all nine members of the Chinook Winds and Cascade Quartet by the Great Falls Symphony’s Music Director, Grant Harville.
The Great Falls Symphony offers new ticket options for Chamber Music Series patrons.
Single admission is $15 for adults and $5 for students. Family passes are $15 and include admission for one student and one adult. Bring-a-friend packages are available online only at gfsymphony.org and include two adult admissions for $25. Four-ticket passes are available for $45 (adults) and $16 (students). Season passes grant seven admissions and may be purchased for $75 (adults) and $25 (students). All tickets, packages, and season passes are available to purchase online at gfsymphony.org or at the door. For more information, contact the Symphony office at 406-453-4102 or visit gfsymphony.org.
2018-2019 Season Schedule: Chamber Music Series
Reel Time: Music from the Movies with the Cascade Quartet
2pm, Sun, Oct 14, First Congregational Church UCC, 2900 9th Ave S
7pm, Tue, Oct 16, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
New Frontiers with the Chinook Winds
2 pm, Sun, Nov 11, First Congregational Church UCC, 2900 9th Ave S
7pm, Tue, Nov 13, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
The Harp with the Cascade Quartet
2pm, Sun, Dec 9, First Congregational Church UCC, 2900 9th Ave S
7pm, Tue, Dec 11, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
Airs of Eastern Europe with the Chinook Winds
2pm, Sun, Jan 13, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
7pm, Tue, Jan 15, Masonic Lodge, 821 Central Ave
Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ with the Cascade Quartet
2 pm, Sun, Feb 24, First Congregational Church UCC, 2900 9th Ave S
7pm, Tue, Feb 26, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
All That Jazz with the Chinook Winds
2pm, Sun, Mar 24, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
7pm, Tue, Mar 26, Masonic Lodge, 821 Central Ave
Complementary Colors with the Cascade Quartet and the Chinook Winds
2pm, Sun, May 19, First Congregational Church UCC, 2900 9th Ave S
7pm, Tue, May 21, University of Providence, 1301 20th St S
ADMISSION:
Individual tickets $15 Adults / $5 Students
Season Pass $75 Adults / $25 Students (7 admissions)
Four-Ticket Pass $45 Adults / $16 Students (4 admissions)
Family Package $15 (1 student + 1 adult admission)
Bring-a-Friend Package $25 (2 adult admissions) available only online at gfsymphony.org.
Cascade Quartet
With its depth of sound, insightful interpretations, and genre-bending performances, the Cascade Quartet has enriched communities across Montana and the Northwest for over three decades. They are praised for their cross-discipline collaborations and have worked closely with multi-media artists, dancers, choirs, world percussionists and jazz artists. Noted past collaborations include Yo Yo Ma, the Ying Quartet, and Grammy nominee Philip Aaberg.
The Cascade Quartet is the resident string quartet of the Great Falls Symphony and its personnel serve as principal players in the orchestra. Each quartet member is a strong advocate for music education and outreach. They tour extensively throughout the year providing concerts, multi-day residencies and interactive school activities for communities large and small. The Cascade Quartet includes violinists Mary Papoulis and Megan Karls, violist Alyssa Roggow, and cellist Thaddeus Suits.
Great Falls Symphony
The Mission of the Great Falls Symphony is to infuse cultural vibrancy into the Great Falls community through transformative music events and education programs. The organization strives to be an essential cultural asset in North Central Montana that raises the quality of life for its citizens through outstanding performing arts programs.
The Great Falls Symphony includes a 75 member semi-professional Orchestra, a one hundred member Symphonic Choir and two professional resident ensembles (the Cascade Quartet and Chinook Winds) made up of nine "Core" orchestral musicians, and a Youth Orchestra program (established in 1996) which supports two student orchestras and over 100 talented young musicians grades six through twelve from Great Falls and surrounding areas. These components offer a rich and diverse mix of activities that include orchestra, choral, chamber and educational concerts which reach up to 40,000 people annually. The Great Falls Symphony presents a six-concert series every year, and plays host to a variety of guest artists and resident composers. The Cascade Quartet and Chinook Winds present fourteen concerts on the Symphony’s Chamber Music Series in Great Falls in addition to traveling an average of 4,500 miles each year performing concerts and educational programs throughout the northwest United States. To fulfill a state and regional mission, the Great Falls Symphony places the highest priority upon programs that provide state-wide education and outreach. Two Youth Matinees are presented each season by the orchestra and have served well over 115,000 students from the public, private and home schools in a one hundred mile region of Central Montana.
