Acclaimed guest conductor Jeffrey Kahane leads orchestra through powerhouse of modern and classic works
Thick into the National Repertory Orchestra’s season of discovery, famed conductor Jeffrey Kahane returns to Breckenridge July 12 to lead the orchestra through the vibrant and varied “Discover … Spirit” performance.
Featuring many of classical music’s greatest masterworks, the Discover series’ themes invite audiences and orchestra members alike to delve into a profound emotional place. Also a pianist, Kahane is the Music Director of the San Antonio Philharmonic as well as the Sarasota Music Festival. He has performed with everyone from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony to Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell. Years ago, he masterminded his own “Discover” series and is well-versed in the performances’ awe-inspiring impacts.
“I created the ‘Discover’ series in order to give both the audience and the musicians the opportunity to focus deeply on a single piece, and explore a given work from a variety of different angles,” he says. “By providing in-depth contextualization of a major piece, even the most familiar works can provide both audience and performers alike with a sense of discovery and wonder. We call these ‘classics’ precisely because there is always more to discover.”
The Discover … Spirit program launches with a recently premiered piece by Grammy-winning Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, followed by heart-wrenching works by German composers Paul Hindemith and Carl Maria von Weber, wrapping up with Russian composer Serge Prokofiev’s mighty Symphony No. 5.
“The Fifth Symphony of Prokofiev holds very special personal meaning for me, as it was composed towards the end of the Second World War at a time when the Russian people had experienced a level of suffering almost without parallel,” Kahane says. “In spite of this, Prokofiev wrote a piece that very consciously celebrates the human spirit and its capacity to survive and transcend tragedy.”
While the concert is rife with music bound to thrill classical connoisseurs, Kahane believes the program is also enticing for orchestra newcomers.
“The whole program is rich and diverse in terms of the range of styles,” he says. “I think the wonderful piece by Gabriela Ortiz, one of today’s most vibrant compositional voices, which opens the program and which evokes an ecstatic tribal ritual, will appeal to anyone, regardless of their experience at symphonic concerts. And the Prokofiev is simply among the most thrilling works in the whole symphonic repertoire.”
To add to the musical diversity of the performance, Colombian violist Juan Diego Vega Ordóñez, a metal music fan who was inspired to become a musician after hearing the band Kiss perform with a symphony, will step forward for a solo during the July 12 concert. Don’t miss this one. Catch Discover … Spirit from 6 to 8 p.m. July 12 at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge. Get tickets and more information here.
PHOTO: Jeffrey Kahane, by A.F. Morton Productions.