“Cosmic Voyage” features Warshauer’s Symphony No. 1 “Living, Breathing Earth” co-commissioned by DPO; adds geo-centric perspective to musical tour of outer space
On Thursday and Saturday evenings, April 26 and 28 respectively, at 8 pm at the Schuster Center, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra presents a musical tour of all the planets, including the one on which we live (but excluding Pluto).
The program begins with a DPO co-commission: the Symphony No. 1 by South Carolinian Meira Warshauer, entitled Living, Breathing Earth. Performed in conjunction with Earth Day on April 22, this concert celebrates what Warshauer calls, “The symbiosis of earth; all creatures, plants, and animals pulsating with the breath of life.”
Commissioned in the summer of 2005, the four-movement symphony recalls the song of cicadas of the Deep South, a reminiscent canoe trip in the Peruvian rain forest, the dance of butterflies along a river’s edge, the soar of birds in winged flight, and – finally – the massive rotation of the earth, slowly turning, revealing the kaleidoscopic colors of earlier movements.
Extending this homage to Mother Earth, Bosnian Guitarist Almer Imamovic joins DPO Music Director Neal Gittleman for Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, a love song for his native Spain.
Then, the Women of the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus join Gittleman and the DPO to perform Gustav Holst’s orchestral composition The Planets. With the exception of Earth and Pluto, each planet in our solar system has its own movement in Holst’s composition.
In the 1999-2000 season, Neal Gittleman and the DPO premiered Warshauer’s Like Streams in the Desert, commissioned in honor of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.
On both concert evenings at 7 pm in the Mead Theatre, Neal Gittleman will conduct a Take Note discussion, with special guest, composer Meira Warshauer. In addition, on the Orchestra Level of the Schuster Center before the concerts the DPO will host ecological groups from the region.