UW Symphony Orchestra Crossroads of the World Concert Hosts Guest Performers from Shanghai and Venezuela

October 1, 2012

The Shanghai University String Ensemble joins the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4 in the UW Fine Arts concert hall. Tickets cost $10 for the public, $7 for seniors and $6 for students.

The music will range from traditional classical (Elgar’s “Nimrod” and short works by Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov) to American crossover (Gershwin’s Piano Concerto) to an Argentinean tango. Part of the concert will just be the Shanghai ensemble, part just the UWSO, and the last four numbers will feature all the musicians together. The UWSO will be led Michael Griffith, and the SHU orchestra’s music director is the violinist Sha.

Venezuelan pianist Gabriel Martinez brings performance credits that include the Chicago and San Francisco symphonies, performances at Carnegie Hall and the Palace of Versailles and reviews calling her “compelling, elegant and incisive” (NY Times); an artist who combines “panache and poetry” (Dallas Morning News); with a “sense of grace and clarity” (The Newark Star Ledger).

Griffith taught at Shanghai University this past summer, as part of a UW-SHU faculty exchange. He learned that the group was planning a U.S. tour and invited it to play at UW. In addition to the joint rehearsals and the concert, the group will also tour the UW campus, spend time with UW’s string faculty and explore the Snowy Range and Vedauwoo.

“The Gershwin ‘Piano Concerto’ is probably the best-known American work for piano and orchestra, after Gershwin’s own ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’" says Griffith. ”It’s a full three-movement concerto, but the melodies and harmonies come from jazz, from American popular song of the 1920s and even a little from Broadway and Hollywood.”

Call (307) 766-6666 to order tickets. Tickets are also available at www.uwyo.edu/finearts, or at the Fine Arts and Wyoming Union box offices.

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