Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio joins Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for orchestrations of classic Phish tunes and the East Coast premiere of his composition Time Turns Elastic at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
This announcement comes on the heels of highly anticipated news that Phish will reunite for the first time since 2004 for three dates in March, a summer tour and as a headliner for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. See below for complete program information.
The first half of the program features classic Phish tunes and solo Anastasio compositions, though the exact set list is tightly under wraps until show time. The second half of the program features the East Coast premiere of Time Turns Elastic, co-composed by Anastasio and long time collaborator Don Hart. Time Turns Elastic is a groundbreaking work for vocals, electric guitar and orchestra with long, orchestral passages intertwined with epic guitar lines and vocals in the vein of such classic Anastasio compositions as The Divided Sky, Guyute and Fluffhead. Anastasio, named one of Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” is featured on vocals and guitar throughout the program.
First premiered with Orchestra Nashville in September 2008, Time Turns Elastic received rave reviews. “It was ambitious, strange and wholly entertaining,” notes Rolling Stone. “There was no doubt he had won over both his hardcore fan base and the Bach aficionados who were new to the party.”
“Working with an artist like Trey is a great opportunity to showcase the influence of classical music in Trey’s style of writing,” says Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director Marin Alsop. “Trey and Phish’s trademark sound was clearly influenced from listening to complex classical compositions. Many of the pieces being performed will be very familiar to the average Phish fan, but with a very different and fun twist. I had the opportunity to meet Trey at my Carnegie Hall debut last year, and we are honored to be able to showcase Trey’s desire to step into classical performance.”
With Anastasio’s electric guitar at the forefront, Time Turns Elastic pushes the limits of orchestral music and delivers a complete articulation of the Baltimore Symphony’s mission to present new musical collaborations that challenge and inspire audiences. “Most of the time when people use an electric instrument with an orchestra, they destroy the capability to blend,” notes Anastasio. “Our approach is to handle it as any other solo instrument. I play at the volume of say, an oboe, so Don can orchestrate around the guitar.” -- www.bsomusic.org
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