by Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
An energetic triad of musicians will return to help Amarillo Symphony close out its 91st season Friday and Saturday.
PROJECT Trio – a New York-based chamber music ensemble who made their Amarillo debut in 2014 – will perform three works with the orchestra, including a new work co-commissioned by the Symphony with several other groups across the country.
The concerts are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St.
Composer Adam Schoenberg wrote “Scatter” for the trio, co-commissioned by the Amarillo Symphony with ensembles in Charleston, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
“Putting ‘Scatter’ together has been a big challenge,” flutist Greg Pattillo said. “It’s not an easy piece.”
The Amarillo performance will be only the third concert bill the work has appeared on, he said.
“Sometimes new music can get a bad rap because people don’t know what to expect,” Pattillo said. “We’ve been hoping people would like it, and it’s gotten an amazing response.”
In “Scatter,” Schoenberg takes full advantage of PROJECT Trio’s staggering versatility.
“There’s a little something of everything in there,” Pattillo said. “There’s feel-good music, there’s music full of tension, there’s interplay between (the members of) PROJECT Trio, there’s interplay between PROJECT Trio and the orchestra, there’s jazz,” Pattillo said. “From the very beginning (with PROJECT Trio) … we got turned on by trying out a bunch of different styles. … I feel that shows in this piece.”
Trio members met while attending Cleveland Institute of Music, then broke out in 2006 when a video of Pattillo beatboxing on flute went viral. From its beginnings, the members have been close colleagues with Jacomo Rafael Bairos, the Amarillo Symphony’s music director and conductor for the past three seasons.
“Jacomo has a million-dollar smile,” Pattillo said. “He’s a really cool dude.”
The weekend concerts also will feature two other PROJECT Trio numbers (“Cherry Blossoms” and “Raga Raja”), Richard Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” and Aaron Copland’s Suite from “Billy the Kid.” The Symphony also will perform “Refried Frandole” by composer Sam Hyken, husband of its principal violist, Yael Kleinman Hyken.
“I can’t imagine a more exhilarating program to end our special season, and I could not be more honored and ecstatic for the accomplishments that the Amarillo Symphony has achieved this glorious season,” Bairos said in a news release.
Tickets are $24, $39 or $54.
On Saturday, PROJECT Trio will headline a post-concert party, Symphony Underground, at 9:30 p.m. in the Canyon Exploration building at Ninth Avenue and Tyler Street. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Visit www.eventbrite.com/e/symphony-underground-tickets-24517242733.
For information, call 806-376-8782 or visit www.amarillosymphony.org.
* Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook.
