Sunflower to present world premiere concert

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jun 11, 2008 by Bill Blankenship

By Bill Blankenship

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Tonight's chamber orchestra concert at the Sunflower Music Festival will include a world premiere.

Michael McLean's Suite for Viola & Orchestra will receive its first public performance as part of a 7:30 p.m. concert in Washburn University's White Concert Hall.

Soloing on the work will be violist Roger Myers, who commissioned the suite as a memorial to his mother.

Born in Sydney, Australia, where he played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra while still a student, Myers has lived in the United States since 1987. He is a professor and head of the strings division at the University of Texas at Austin, in addition to being an in-demand performer.

The Los Angeles-based McLean has been composing classical music since he was a boy. His works include a violin concerto, "Elements," written on a commission by Kansas-born violin virtuoso Brian Lewis.

Lewis recorded "Elements" with the London Symphony for the Delos label at the Abbey Road Studios made famous by the Beatles.

In addition to the world premiere, the chamber orchestra, under the direction of Alex Klein, will play Richard Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll," a piece the composer wrote in 1870 as a birthday present to his wife.

The orchestra also will play two works by Hungarian-born composers who were influenced by the music of gypsies and the folk songs of their homeland: Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" and Zoltan Kodaly's "Dances of Galanta."

Even a classical music neophyte will recognize "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" as its music has been used over and over again in animated cartoons. Its "performers" have included Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker.

Kodaly's "Dances of Galanta" were inspired by dance music he heard as a boy in Galanta, which is in modern-day Slovakia.

The dances derive from a form of music associated with dances performed by traveling soldiers as a means to entice young men to enlist in the military.

The Sunflower Music Festival continues with a concert Thursday by the Miro Quartet, a program of chamber ensemble music Friday and Saturday's festival-ending chamber orchestra concert.

Doors of White Concert Hall will open at 6:30 p.m. daily for the 7:30 p.m. concerts. Admission is free, and early arrival is recommended for choice seating.

Bill Blankenship can be reached

at (785) 295-1284

or bill.blankenship@cjonline.com.