Music as Legend

It begins with Chokfi’: Sarcasm for String Orchestra and Percussion by Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. This piece is a character sketch of a trickster rabbit in Southeast American Indian legends. Different string and percussion techniques and colors represent the complicated and diabolical personality of this rabbit person. Chokfi’ (choke-FEE) is both a generous invitation into the Chickasaw culture and a fascinating musical experience. Learn more about Jerod and Chokfi’ on YouTube.

“The abstract darting target of challenge, wonder and fate. Everything is in him, and he becomes everything, to carry lessons from the river and messages of the thunder beings. The challenge, the modern, the ancient and the timeless – all unpredictable, yet perfectly logical.”

In a dramatic shift to the mid-18th century, soloist Evan Kahn, the distinguished principal cellist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, will thrill the audience with the classic and joyous Haydn Concerto in C Major. Each of the three movements is pure pleasure. There are catchy, rhythmic main themes, flowing second themes, and jaw-dropping virtuosic passages for the solo cello.

“Each of the three movements is pure pleasure. There are catchy, rhythmic main themes, flowing second themes, and jaw-dropping virtuosic passages for the solo cello. In the third movement, especially, if you close your eyes you’ll find it hard to believe one player could be responsible for so many notes; the alternation between the cello’s high and low register makes it sound like two cellos playing in counterpoint.”

– Elizabeth Morrison

The program concludes with American composer Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 in Db Major, a piece said to reflect his Scandinavian heritage as well as “the wide, open sound of the American frontier.” Hanson described this piece as “springing from the soil of the American Midwest. It is music of the plains rather than of the city and reflects, I believe, something of the broad prairies of my native Nebraska.”