Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Violinist Gregory Walker & Boulder Phil in 'European Sojourn: Infusing Folk With Classical'

[Gregory Walker as Violin Soloist with Boulder Symphony, “The Community Orchestra of Boulder County,” Colorado]

Professor Gregory T.S. Walker of the University of Colorado Denver is currently bringing us up to date on his classical music activities. This post, the second in a series, concerns a concert of the Boulder Symphony which took place on Dec. 17, 2010, at which Dr. Walker performed as violin soloist:

“European Sojourn: Infusing Folk With Classical
Friday, December 17, 2010 at 7:30PM
at First United Methodist Church, Boulder

Mozart Violin Concerto no. 5 (Turkish)
Tchaikovsky March from the Nutcracker
Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite arranged by Arnold Jacob
Rimsky-Korsakov Cappricio Espagnol
Sibelius Finlandia
Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson
Holiday Sing-alongs!

“As the Boulder Symphony continues to journey to the farthest reaches of creation, we are collecting precious gems of classical music that are based in folk elements. Both Mozart and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov traveled extensively, and absorbed musical elements of all their journeys. The Turkish Violin concerto will be performed by Gregory Walker, who will explore all the possibilities of creation, as Mozart would have done through improvised cadenzas. Rimsky-Korsakov, when he wrote Capriccio Espagnol, which will feature the exceptional solo talents of members of the Boulder Symphony, summed up Spanish life almost as well as Emmanuel Chabrier. For Finlandia Jean Sibelius took a simple folk song of his native land, and by rallying the independence movement against Russia, composed the unofficial national anthem of Finland.

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