In what may be called the apex of the symphony's vision to rejuvenate the traditional symphonic experience, the Amarillo Symphony's "Reimaginings" this weekend presents a concert full of reconception.
Project Trio, comprised of a string bass, cello and flute, joins the symphony, adding an eclectic flavor of musical styles to the concert.If there is a box you have put symphonic music into, this may be the concert where the symphony steps completely out of it.
Musical director Jacomo Rafael Bairos calls this concert "the apex of our season in regards to the vision of reinvention of what we love about the symphony."
Bairos outlines how the musical selections serve as the vehicle for the "Reimaginings" theme. "We decided to take West Side Story as the focal point, which is a reimagining tale of Romeo and Juliet in a way," Bairos explains. The symphony performs Bernstein's West Side Story: Symphonic Dances with the Project Trio.
The trio also joins the symphony to narrate an updated version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Instead of a story about Peter escaping into the woods, dealing with a wolf, duck, and bird, this condensed version is set in Brooklyn using the same characters under slightly modernized circumstances.
"It uses a lot of the themes and a lot of the characters," Bairos says, "But it's all based on a playground and set with kids."
The Project Trio takes a leading role in the reimagining of Rossini's William Tell Overture. "They have changed it so completely, where all the main themes are still there," Bairos says, "but it's in a version that they've created that mixes a lot of these other genres, like rock and hip-hop and Latin."
Bairos says the concert is a high point of the symphony's season. "It really shows that we're excited about classical music, and we want to get you excited about classical music, so we're going to step out of the box a little bit."