Final concert of the 2017-2018 Chamber Music Series

Resonant Combinations is the final concert of the Great Falls Symphony’s Chamber Music Series and brings members of both the Cascade Quartet and the Chinook Winds together for a joint performance of music for strings, winds, and various combinations of the two instrument groups. Performances take place at 2PM on Sunday, May 20, at First Congregational Church UCC and at 7PM on Tuesday, May 22, at the chapel at the University of Providence. Single admission is $15.00 for adults and $5.00 for students. Season passes are available for purchase for $75.00 for adults and $25.00 for students. Season passes are punch cards which grant seven admissions in any combination. Single admission tickets and season passes are available for purchase online at gfsymphony.org or at the door. For more information, contact the Symphony office at 406-453-4102 or visit gfsymphony.org.

Bookended with pieces from the classical era, the Resonant Combinations program is full of unique repertoire made possible by the mixing together of all of the Core Musicians of the Great Falls Symphony.

In this eclectic program, Maria Ritzenthaler and Megan Karls of the Cascade Quartet will join the Chinook Winds’ Dorian Antipa in performance of Interlude by Elizabeth Kennedy Bayer. It is a movement taken from the five movement work "Magic Sky Fairy" commissioned by the Enid Trio (including the Cascade Quartet’s own Megan Karls on violin) in 2013. The full work was conceived for violin, viola, bassoon and electronics and calls upon the performers to double as percussionists and to interface with recorded sounds both audibly and theatrically. Interlude stands alone as the only purely acoustic portion of the work. It is a simple song set between sounds of sledgehammers, operatic tenors, sinking ships and punk rock music.

Ritzenthaler will also join the Chinook Winds’ Norman Gonzales for Francois Devienne’s Duo in C minor for Flute and Viola, Op. 5, No. 3. Devienne was a French bassoonist and flutist, as well as a notable composer and teacher. He met Mozart on several occasions, and the influence is clearly noticeable in the compositional style. He composed extensively for woodwinds, especially the flute, and published his flute method in 1794, a year before he was employed as the first flute professor at the Paris Conservatoire. In his day, he was called “the Mozart of the flute.”

Karls, Ritzenthaler, and cellist Thad Suits of the Cascade Quartet collaborate with the Chinook Winds’ newest member and horn player, Madeleine Folkerts, and guest violist Garion Holian to present Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E-flat, K. 407. Describing the piece, Folkerts explains, “It was the first piece Mozart composed for his friend and contemporary, a horn player by the name of Joseph Leutgeb… It is because of Leutgeb’s proclivity and talent that Mozart wrote as much, and as difficult of repertoire for the horn.”

In a piece that reflects more upon current events on a global scale, Ritzenthaler and Suits will perform Sahba Aminikia’s duet, Elegy. Born in Iran in 1981, many of the composer’s works involve topics of political unrest and global suffering. Mr. Aminikia says “The dichotomy between light and dark, to me, is clear; yet, through music, I aim to find the moment where the former emerges. Growing in a newly born democracy amid war and in the aftermath of a revolution, I, along with many in my generation, experienced a tumultuous childhood…” Elegy for cello and viola, also falls in this politically charged vein, as it was written for sixty Afghan children who were killed during a U.S airstrike in August 2008 by accident.

The Chinook Winds’ Chris Mothersole joins the Cascade Quartet’s Karls, Ritzenthaler, and Suits for the Polonaise movement of Clarinet Quartet No. 1 by Estonian-born Ivan Müller, a virtuoso clarinetist, composer, and inventor. Amongst clarinetists Müller is known as the inventor of the alto clarinet and the revolutionary 13-keyed soprano clarinet. Mothersole describes this selection as a “brilliant example of Müller showing us what this new and improved clarinet is capable of”.

Single admission is $15 Adults / $5 Students. Season passes are available for purchase for $75 Adults / $25 Students. Season passes are punch cards that grant seven admissions in any combination. Single admission tickets and season passes are available for purchase online at gfsymphony.org or at the door. Food tickets for the Fall Flavors program in September are sold separately from concert admission and must be purchased in advance at gfsymphony.org/fall-flavors. For more information, contact the Symphony office at 406-453-4102 or visit gfsymphony.org.

Cascade Quartet

With its depth of sound, insightful interpretations, and genre-bending performances, the Cascade Quartet has enriched communities across Montana and the Northwest for over three decades. They are praised for their cross-discipline collaborations and have worked closely with multi-media artists, dancers, choirs, world percussionists and jazz artists. Noted past collaborations include Yo Yo Ma, the Ying Quartet, and Grammy nominee Philip Aaberg.

The Cascade Quartet is the resident string quartet of the Great Falls Symphony and its personnel serve as principal players in the orchestra. Each quartet member is a strong advocate for music education and outreach. They tour extensively throughout the year providing concerts, multi-day residencies and interactive school activities for communities large and small. The Cascade Quartet includes violinists Mary Papoulis and Megan Karls, violist Maria Ritzenthaler, and cellist Thaddeus Suits.

Chinook Winds

As the resident wind quintet of the Great Falls Symphony, members of the Chinook Winds Quintet serve as principal players in the Great Falls Symphony Orchestra as well as present chamber music and interactive school programs and residencies throughout Montana and the Northwest. The Chinook Winds have been performing throughout the region since 1992. Their performances have been praised for their excellent choice of literature, technical proficiency, and impressive artistry. In 2015 the Chinook Winds Quintet was featured on the Montana PBS show 11th & Grant With Erick Funk.

The Chinook Winds includes Norman Gonzales, flute; Lauren Blackerby, oboe; Christopher Mothersole, clarinet; Madeleine Folkerts, horn; and Dorian Antipa, bassoon.