Sunday, September 18, 2011
Arts & Extras: In season opener, RSO concerto melds classical with bluegrass
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
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For most of his years, Jeff Midkiff lived a musical double life.
Growing up in Roanoke County, Midkiff received a mandolin as a gift from a neighbor when he was 7 years old. He took to it with gusto, learned to play bluegrass and repeatedly won first prize in the mandolin competition at the Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax.
When he was 11, he joined the band at Hidden Valley Junior High School. There was no place there for a mandolin, but Midkiff wanted to play, so he took up clarinet.
"I started learning classical music and I loved that, too," he said.
Through college, graduate school and after, Midkiff pursued a professional career playing clarinet - as part of the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, he performed in Carnegie Hall —- while moonlighting on the side, and sometimes touring, with respected bluegrass bands such as the McPeak Brothers, the Schankman Twins and the Lonesome River Band.
He always made it a point to keep the two careers separate, a decision that, not long before his return to Roanoke five years ago, he came to regard as a mistake.
But it's a mistake that has since been remedied.
During its 2011-12 season opening performance on Oct. 3, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra will debut a composition by Midkiff that fuses the two sides of his music career. RSO Conductor and Artistic Director David Stewart Wiley commissioned Midkiff to write a concerto for mandolin and orchestra, titled "From the Blue Ridge." The symphony previewed a fast-paced sample from the new work at a news conference in April.
The commission came as part of an effort by RSO to reach out to a broader and more diverse audience.
While Midkiff is hesitant to call the composition "bluegrass," it's definitely bluegrass-influenced.
Midkiff, who teaches music at Fairview Elementary and Woodrow Wilson Middle schools, has worked as a substitute clarinetist and bass clarinetist for RSO. Interested in creating an ambitious blend of music styles, he approached Wiley with the idea in November 2010, as well as samples of his previous scores, and Wiley and the RSO board were so intrigued that within a few days they told him they wanted the piece for the next opening night.
The concerto has three movements: fast-paced, slow and fast again, Midkiff said. The second movement references a number of traditional tunes, such as Bill Monroe's "Roanoke" and the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower." The third movement, which Wiley has nicknamed "The Crooked Road," incorporates elements of percussion, jazz, even a dash of funk, Midkiff said.
"From the Blue Ridge" will preface a performance of "From the New World," written by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak during a visit to the United States in the 1890s.
Midkiff called it "humbling" that his new composition will debut on a program with Dvorak's masterpiece. He said the New World Symphony, as the work is also known, influenced his approach.
In creating the symphony, Dvorak set out to show composers in America how to use music from their culture to build classical compositions unique to their country. He drew inspiration from Native American music, black spirituals and even literature such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha."
"The idea of writing music of the land where you come from really resonates with me," Midkiff said.
The concerto is so new that there's no plan for further performances, yet. "This is a world premiere," Midkiff said. "I think we all hope that the piece will be received well enough that I can send the scores to other orchestras."
The program also features Midkiff performing the traditional melodies "Goodbye Liza Jane" and "Monroe's Hornpipe," which he's arranged for orchestra.
RSO's season opener takes place at 8 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre at the Roanoke Civic Center. Tickets are $21-$49, students $7. Wiley and Midkiff will give a talk about the music in the program at 7 p.m.
For more information call 343-9127 or visit rso.com.
'The Guru of Chai'
The $87 million Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech is still in the early stages of construction, but that hasn't prevented the center from announcing a 2011-12 performance season. The performances simply have to take place in other venues.
"The Guru of Chai," the center's season opener, will be hosted by Roanoke's Taubman Museum of Art.
"The Guru of Chai" is the creation of New Zealanders Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis, who together founded the traveling troupe Indian Ink Theatre Co. Rajan plays the title character, whom publicity materials describe thus: "Once every millennia there comes a teacher who awakens us all to the power of the divine. But if you can't wait that long, book an audience with the Guru of Chai!"
In the play, Rajan's chai vendor shares humorous anecdotes about life and love. Rajan also portrays the characters who are the subjects of the guru's stories, including a love-smitten police officer and a girl with a stunning singing voice. He's accompanied by musician David Ward, who acts as a mute sidekick during the performance.
The company is on tour in the United States for the first time in its 15-year history.
Forthcoming events in the Center for the Performing Arts season include a performance by The English Concert, a London orchestra that uses antique instruments, on Oct. 15 at The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, and a Nov. 7 master class to be taught in the Squires Student Center at Virginia Tech by Sir James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway, world-famous flutists. The Galways will perform with Roanoke Symphony Orchestra Nov. 6. For more information on the center's season, visit artscenter.vt.edu.
Performances of "The Guru of Chai" take place at 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday in the Taubman Museum's Taubman Theatre. Tickets are $25, children under 13, $10.
For more information call 342-5760 or visit taubmanmuseum.org.
Lincoln author speaks
Bestselling presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin will speak at Roanoke College on the topic of "Presidential Power after Lincoln."
Goodwin was Lyndon Johnson's assistant during his final year in office and aided him in writing his memoirs. Her first book, "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream," drew on that experience.
She won the Pulitzer in 1995 for "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During World War II."
Her latest book, "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," became a national talking point as President Obama selected a cabinet that included conservatives and other Democrats he'd run against to win the presidential nomination.
Stephen Spielberg's newest film project, "Lincoln," is based on Goodwin's book. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, the film is expected to start shooting in Richmond and Petersburg in the fall.
The talk takes place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the college's Bast Center. The event is free but requires tickets, available at www.roanoke.edu/tickets.
On the Arts blog
See the latest things a Roanoke County actress and Franklin County actor have gotten up to and other arts and culture news at http://blogs.roanoke.com/arts.
