By Chris Bavender
The music of composer Percy Granger will be featured as the Indiana Wind Symphony takes center stage with guest tenor Ken Knowles on March 22 for “Folksong Fantasia.”
“Usually the way I plan a concert is I decide on a couple of big works we want to do and then I think, OK, is there any connection that we can form a theme,” said symphony conductor Charles Conrad. “In this case, with the songs form the Catskills, there is based on folk songs. We’ve not done a concert with that theme.”
That led Conrad to immediately contact Knowles.
“Right away I wanted to get him involved because he is such a terrific singer of folk songs,” Conrad said. “He is such a Carmel fixture and has sung with us maybe a dozen times.”
And the concert will feature an interesting twist – playing old recordings Granger compiled of folk singers when he put together a piece called “A Lincolnshire Posy.”
“A lot of his music came from that treasure trove, and we have those songs and before we play the six we will play a bit of that (recordings) to give people an idea of the flavor of what it sounded like to Granger,” Conrad said. “I hope it will be exciting. It will be a little odd sounding because of the age of the technology but it will be interesting to hear the old recordings but also show off Percy Granger’s genius in coming up with all of these interesting textures – some simple and some extremely complex.”
It’s an evening Conrad hopes audience members will remember for some time.
“There is this kind of beauty and simplicity of folk music that even though it is relatively simple when you put it together from a musical standpoint it has great emotions and human truths that are all intertwined,” Conrad said.
The Indiana Wind Symphony presents “Folksong Fantasia” ● 7:30 p.m. March 22 ● The Palladium in Carmel ● Tickets start at $5 ● For more information call 843-3800 or visit www.thecenterfortheperformingarts.org
