The Kalamazoo Philharmonia will open its concert season at 7:30 pm on Saturday, Nov 16 at First United Methodist Church in downtown Kalamazoo. Music director Andrew Koehler, Music Director joins Cara Lieurance on "Let's Hear It," to preview the music.
The concert's theme is music connected to Portugal and its colonial history. “It’s a big part of what Portuguese colonialism brought to other parts of the world, such as Brazil, which is where half of our program originates,” Koehler explained. The program begins with Il Guarany, an opera overture by Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Gomes.
Koehler described Il Guarany as a historical milestone. “[Gomes] was really fascinatingly the first composer from anywhere in the New World to really be truly received positively in the old.” Composed by Gomes after his studies in Italy, the piece premiered there and was praised by Giuseppe Verdi, who called Gomes “a music genius.”
Assad’s modern composition, Bonicos de Olinda, evokes Brazil’s vibrant Carnival celebrations, merging African, indigenous, and Portuguese cultural influences. “It’s a piece that seems like it’s trying to get at its almost euphoric state," says Koehler.
The second half of the program will feature the Symphony No. 4 by 20th-century Portuguese composer Joly Braga Santos, an unjustly neglected master symphonist, according to Koehler. The Philharmonia had to order the sheet music directly from Lisbon. “This is the first time that this music will ever be heard live in the United States,” he says.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for students. Details on the Kalamazoo Philharmonia season are available at its website.
