Percussion brings new sounds to a new theater

Jan 4, 2008

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 326-3136

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Percussionist Maria Flurry will treat the audience to a blend of consummate musicianship and captivating performance style when she appears with the Spokane Symphony under the direction of Maestro Eckart Preu on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. in the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox.

Flurry is an award-winning concerto performer and was educated at Interlochen Arts Academy, Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Michigan. She has performed with the Detroit, Baltimore, Phoenix, Toledo, and Annapolis Orchestras as well as with orchestras across southeast Michigan. She has also been guest timpanist with the Michigan Opera Theater, Mannheim Steamroller, Phoenix Symphony and she served as principal timpanist with the Flint Symphony Orchestra for over a decade.

Her performance of Tan Dun's Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra was called "captivating, as indicated by the standing ovation" by the Flint Journal. Written in 1999, Tan Dun's Water Concerto has been called a refreshing break from the twentieth century's 12-tone, minimalist, and neo-romantic literature.

Tan, who composed the Academy-Award-winning score for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, uses unique sounds, powerful imagery, and percussive and atmospheric elements created by both the percussionists and orchestra to expertly guide the listener from a state of meditation to a pulsating frenzy that puts the listener on the edge of his seat.

Water percussion is anything that uses water in producing a sound or anything whose sounds conjures a water image in the listener's mind. Flurry uses water percussion with virtuosity and heart. Her expressiveness fully communicates her connection to the music, the orchestra and to the audience.

This connection moves the Water Concerto from merely an intriguing piece to a performance that has brought the audience to a standing ovation peppered with whistles and calls of Bravo. People leave the auditorium excitedly chatting with their seatmates, still humming the tunes from the lilting duet between the cello and the gong, mentally replaying the musical chattering of the agogo bells, or tapping out the rhythmic motif of the second movement.

But the Water Concerto is only one part of this fabulous concert that opens with Charles Griffes' The White Peacock, a fragile tone poem with music that is delicate and colorful - like an Impressionist canvas. Called the American impressionist, Griffes was regarded as the greatest talent of his generation. This performance is a further tribute to the Moldenhauer Archives.

The Symphony No. 4 in E minor by Johannes Brahms is the last of his symphonies. It is a lushly romantic, lyric piece and is considered by many to be his greatest work. Back in 1885, a famous conductor described how Brahms' Symphony No. 4 "exudes unparalleled energy from first note to last." In more than 120 years, nothing has changed as the Spokane Symphony audience will be able to observer.

The Matinee performance is also part of the Symphony YES! series, a family-friendly series of concerts designed for children age 8-14. A pre-concert event will be held at Center Stage, across the street from the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox, starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 13.

Tickets are $19, $29, $37, and $41. Tickets are available in advance at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox Box Office, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT, or on line at www.spokanesymphony.org.