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The
BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra will present the annual Halloween concert Oct.
29-31 in the Barrus Concert Hall in the Snow Center for the Performing Arts
on the BYU-Idaho campus.
Tickets go on sale Monday, Oct. 14,
at the BYU-Idaho Ticket Office and online at www.byui.edu/tickets. Call the
ticket office at 496-2230. Concerts will be held on Oct. 29 and 30 at both
6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and at 7 p.m. on Halloween night.
Cost
is $5 for general public and $1 for BYU-Idaho students. All proceeds from
ticket sales for this concert are used to fund scholarships for students
participating in BYU-Idaho orchestras and bands.
This
year’s concert will see the return of conductor Kevin Call as The Count, a
character he created 18 years ago for the first Halloween concert presented
in 1984. He will be joined once again by associate conductor, Kendell
Nielsen, in his familiar role as Igor.
Call
has appeared as The Count every year in this concert series except in 2001
when he was on sabbatical from his teaching responsibilities at the
university. Nielsen has played the role of Igor for more than 15 years.
During the transition period between Ricks College and BYU-Idaho, the
annual Halloween Concert has been presented by various groups on campus.
This year’s return of the Symphony Orchestra marks the beginning of what
will once again be an annual concert for this ensemble.
The
theme of this year’s concert will be “The Spirit of Paganini.” Niccolo
Paganini was a legendary 19th century violin virtuoso of unparalleled
technical mastery. Folk legend holds that he sold his soul to the devil for
his ability to play the violin and for the love of a woman.
Monte
Belknap, BYU-Idaho’s new violin faculty member, will join colleagues Call
and Nielsen in portraying the ghost of Paganini and perform with the
orchestra the “Danse macabre,” a long-time favorite with past Halloween
concert audiences. He will also perform selections from Paganini’s First
Violin Concerto and his Twenty-Fourth Caprice.
Also
performing on the concert with the orchestra will be pianist Del Parkinson
of Boise. He will be featured in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody Variations on a
Theme of Paganini.” One of these variations was made famous and
recognizable by many as the theme music for the movie “Somewhere in Time.”
The
final featured performer on the concert will be Darwin Wolford of the music
faculty appearing as his alter-ego,“The Phantom.” Wolford also originally
created this role for the initial 1984 concert. He will playing the newly
rebuilt Ruffatti organ as audience members arrive for the concert and
featured during the concert performing his own improvisation on the “Dies
irae” melody, a musical theme that has come to represent death.
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