On Thursday, February 19 and Friday, February 20 the Louisville Orchestra presents an array of culturally-inspired music at Whitney Hall, including Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1, with composer/performer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) himself. Also being presented are Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, op. 23, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, op. 17 (“Little Russian”).
DBR’s Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1 features an energetic array of musical styles and a melding of many cultures. DBR describes:
“This violin concerto is most concerned with the notion of the ritual, or our collective rites of passage. From the current state of a highly technological country in the United States of America (the techno textures and rhythms of ‘Filtering’), to my own relationship with Catholicism (the meditative tonality of ‘Prayer’), I find ‘Tribe’ in all of its primitive repetition, to, perhaps, be the most accurate depiction of where we are right now, as a collective, civilized society; a collective, civilized world.”
Known for his entrancing performance ability, DBR will be featured on violin. Compositionally, DBR mixes his Haitian-American heritage and cultural experiences to create imaginative, unusual work.
Alberto Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, op. 23 are Argentinean in style, but do not draw from folk music or traditional Latin rhythms. Instead, Ginastera has created his own themes and rhythms reflective of his homeland, Argentina. Also being performed is Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Little Russian.” Tchaikovsky bases the themes of this piece from folk music, which was a common trend at the time of composition. The nickname “Little Russian” specifically references Ukraine, as the work features three different folksongs from that country.
The Louisville Orchestra’s Associate Conductor Jason Weinberger will conduct. He also serves as Music Director for The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Music Director in Iowa. After finishing his degree at Yale University, Mr. Weinberger studied under Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory and received a Graduate Conducting Fellowship, as well as a Peabody Career Grant. -- www.LouisvilleOrchestra.org
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