News Release - Original/Cutting Edge - May 5

5th Subscription Concert – 62nd Season

Original/Cutting Edge

7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5

Jackson Community College Music Hall, 2111 Emmons Rd. 

For further information, contact:

Joan Cummings 517-782-3221, 517-782-3268 (Fax), joan.cummings@jacksonsymphony.org   

For Immediate Release:  April 17, 2012 

JSO to present Original/Cutting Edge works in concert

The cello/guitar team of Viktor Uzur and Brad Richter will present an exciting new “mash-up” work for guitar, cello and orchestra at the Jackson Symphony Orchestra’s season finale on May 5. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Jackson Community College Music Hall, 2111 Emmons Road. 

The rest of the program will include the intense and joyous Overture to Oberon from Carl Maria von Weber’s English opera. Weber, a German composer, learned English in order to write the dialogue and music for Oberon (Elf King’s Oath), which premiered in 1826 at London’s Covent Garden.  

There also will be a surprise visit by “Ludwig van Beethoven” — a good friend of Weber's — conducting sections of one of his favorite overtures, Egmont.

Also on the program is the colorful and energetic Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. This piece is composer Paul Hindemith’s 1943 elaboration on one of Weber’s earlier works for two pianos. 

The Richtur Uzur Duo’s World premier of Duo Concerto is a blend of classical, rock and world music idioms.

“As far as we know, this is the first duo concerto written for these two instruments,” Richter said. “This is surprising because of the beautiful contrast the two voices create: the guitar with its percussive attack and rhythmic precision and the cello with its singing tenor and warm depth. The Duo Concerto has an accessible tonal language and a pulse that borrows more from world music than classical,” he continued. 

Through a blending of eastern European folk melodic structures, rock music idioms and classical form and development, the piece is both forward looking and familiar. Movements I and II are more traditional, reminiscent of some of the great romantic concerti in their structure and use of instrumentation. Movement III is a flashy and intelligent mash-up of the Duo’s favorite Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) guitar riffs that “intertwines layers of fantastic rock riffs with a studied sense of counter point and pointillism,” Richter said.

A lot is made of the fact that the Richter Uzur Duo collaborate from a distance,  with Brad Richter living in Tucson, Az. and Viktor Uzur living in Ogden, Utah. This distance, along with the fact that it is rare in the classical music world that two successful composers truly collaborate on writing new music, make this venture unique. 

There are several things the Duo has done to make their work possible: they share Finale computer scores over the Internet enabling them to make subtle changes and quickly send ideas back and forth, and they use Skype Internet video, phone and email regularly. Their most important work, however, happens when they are actually together on tour. While traveling, the Duo spends many hours each day in hotel rooms and backstage writing, refining and practicing in an effort to take advantage of every moment they are together.

Willis & Jurasek P.C., CPAs & Consultants is sponsoring this concert.

To order tickets, call 782-3221, ext. 118; visit www.jacksonsymphony.org; or stop by the orchestra’s downtown office at 215 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson. Tickets are $32 for Section A - Main Floor; $27 for Section B and Balcony Wings and $18 for Section C 

Ticket holders are invited to attend the complimentary and highly acclaimed pre-concert lecture series hosted by Dr. Bruce Brown, JSO’s Composer-in-Residence. Called Backstage Glimpses, the lectures take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Federer Rooms off the first floor lobby in the Potter Center. Allegiance Health sponsors Backstage Glimpses.

NOTE: The Jackson Symphony Orchestra is a community resource providing performances of the classics and popular music, a community music school with private and group instruction and numerous educational programs for students of all ages. The organization owns a 30,000-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown Jackson which not only serves as an administrative, rehearsal, and recital performance space for the orchestra but also is home to the Jackson Youth Symphony, the Jackson Chorale and Children's Choir, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and JSO Community String Ensemble. The orchestra primarily performs at the world-class Music Hall of the Jackson Community College Potter Center and other venues in town including several churches, the County Fairgrounds and Michigan Theatre.

Since 2008, when the Richter Uzur Duo began to be regularly featured on NPR’s Performance Today, they have played to critical acclaim around the globe. 

“Here is serious musicianship that doesn’t take itself too seriously- an illusive combination, but skillfully realized…Bravo, and bravo again!” 

  — Fanfare Magazine

Their recent debut on PBS’s WoodSongs (also heard in 173 countries via Armed Forces Radio Network) was met with overwhelming enthusiasm and the Richter Uzur Duo will be guests on the show several more times in 2012. 

“The Richter Uzur Duo is doing some amazing stuff.  Wait until you hear…”

— Michael Johnathon, Host of PBS's WoodSongs