It's Thursday. It's Symphony Week. Great things have been happening all week with Verne in the studio, and today was no exception. We were happy to have Luke Baumgarten of Terrain (see Part 1) and Aaron Nicholson of Opera Coeur d'Alene visit to chat with Verne about their organizations' collaborations with the Spokane Symphony. Cutting edge, trendy, innovative, avant-garde, revolutionary--all of these are buzz words in the progressive arts arena. The Spokane Symphony is no stranger to these terms, and they are not afraid to jump right in when it comes to collaborating with other artists and musical groups.
Aaron Nicholson, artistic director of Opera Coeur d'Alene, came and talked with Verne about the outstanding collaboration that's been fostered over the years between the symphony and the opera. The opera experience is not complete without the orchestra sitting in the pit, providing fantastic support for the singers on stage. Maybe you know, and maybe you don't, but putting together an opera is huge endeavor. Singers learning parts, rehearsing for weeks or months with a collaborative pianist, staging, acting, costuming, getting the orchestra in for rehearsals...it really is a total art form in both the aural and visual sense. Aaron and Verne chatted about the special relationship Opera CDA has with the Spokane Symphony and how excited everyone is for the upcoming collaborative performance of La Boheme in late November.
The Spokane Symphony's Classics concert series begins this weekend - Saturday, September 19th at 8:00pm and Sunday, September 20th at 3:00pm - with "Russian Adventures," featuring Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, "Little Russian." Tickets available now online at TicketsWest or by contacting/visiting the Box Office at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox.
