The Abbotsford Youth Orchestra performs in concert on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium (32315 South Fraser Way) at 7 p.m.
The orchestra performs an arrangement of Bizet’s opera Carmen written for strings and 27 percussion instruments played by five percussionists, arranged by Rodion Shchedrin.
Bizet’s melodies are re-clothed in a variety of fresh instrumental colours, set to new rhythms and often phrased with a great deal of sly wit, Dyck says.
Initially banned by the Soviet hierarchy as “disrespectful” to the opera for precisely these qualities, the ballet has since become Shchedrin’s best-known work and has remained popular in the West for what reviewer James Sanderson calls “an iconoclastic but highly entertaining retelling of Bizet’s opera.”
In addition, the orchestra will premiere a new Concerto for Strings by local composer Estanislau Gubiotti. The work is influenced by Gubiotti’s Brazilian heritage and is full of tuneful melodies and catchy rhythms.
Also on the program is a piano duet – Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Part and an upbeat Church Sonata by Mozart.
Tickets are $20 and $22, and are available in Abbotsford at King’s Music, House of James or on eventbrite.ca.
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