The Lafayette Symphony Orchestra begins their 67th season with Opening Night (Saturday, October 21, 7:30 p.m.) at the Long Center in Downtown Lafayette. They’ll be performing a selection of works motivated by the visual arts from composers Torke, Beckel, and Mussorgsky, led by Maestro Nick Palmer.
The concert will open with Bright Blue Music (Michael Torke), described on allmusic.com as “fast, light, and unfailingly sunny”. Torke (tor-key) is an American composer who experiences synesthesia, a condition in which the stimulation of one sense produces another sensation at the same time. For example, synesthetes can taste sounds, smell colors, or see scents, depending on their particular condition. The performance will be accompanied by artwork from 2nd grade art students at Blue Ridge Primary. “We talked about the artist Kandinsky (who also had synesthesia) and explored the link between music and other senses using mark making,” says Blue Ridge Visual Arts Instructor Taylor Csonka. “We discussed how to express different music levels, crescendos, and music patterns before starting our final pieces. Our medium was watercolor pencils, which the students used for the first time. The results are lovely.”
In the Mind’s Eye: Images for Horns and Orchestra (by Hoosier composer James Beckel) will feature the LSO French Horn Quartet as well as the paintings that influenced the composer. Introducing the piece will be a short video with commentary from Beckel about his composition methods.
Modest Mussorgsky was inspired to write Pictures at an Exhibition by a retrospective art show for his close friend Viktor Hartmann. The piece will be presented with the LSO’s second Pop-up Program. This new and popular feature projects interesting facts and pictures about the music, composer, or the story line in sync with the performance.
To set the mood for the art laden show, the St. John Pavilion and mezzanine lobby of the Long Center will have gorgeous photography displayed from Lafayette’s Artists’ Own member Al Knight.
Tickets are available in advance at lafayettesymphony.org or by calling (765) 742-6463.
Launched in 1951 as a non-profit organization, the LSO is focused on enriching the cultural life of the Greater Lafayette community and 14 surrounding counties through musical excellence and educational experience. About 80 percent of its patrons are from Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County, while the remainder are from the surrounding counties of Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Howard, Jasper, Montgomery, Newton, Pulaski, Tipton, Warren and White.