Grand Canyon Centennial Concerts in Arizona
Although many millions of years old, in 2019 the Grand Canyon will officially turn 100. To celebrate the formation of the national park, we’re bringing our Grand Canyon Country visual concerto back to audiences in Phoenix and Tucson. Their orchestras co-commissioned and premiered the piece in 2012 to celebrate Arizona’s state centennial. The performance piece, a tribute in music and images to the canyon’s majesty, is choreographed to Grand Canyon Suite, Ferde Grofé’s monumental work synonymous with the world-famous natural sculpture.
The production of the piece involved over two months of shooting thousands of images in the Grand Canyon region—including a 9-day raft trip down the Colorado River—plus many off-the-beaten-path overlooks and the Painted Desert. Since its commissioning, we have performed the piece with orchestras across the U.S. from Alabama to California to Ohio, and we’ve taken it on tour in Germany—and soon Poland.
For the 100th anniversary concerts, we’re starting things off in Phoenix, where The Phoenix Symphony will be presenting two concerts on January 11 & 12, 2019. The concert, “Classical Americana,” is being led by conductor Matthew Kasper and will also feature two works by celebrated American composers, Samuel Barber and Charles Ives. Our last collaboration in Phoenix was just a few years ago in 2015 when Nicholas performed his World War I & II pieces, so we’re hoping to see some familiar faces in the audience.
Then on March 2 & 3, we’ll be down in Tucson working with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and their new music director, José Luis Gomez, coincidentally during their 90th anniversary season. To complement the national park theme, the TSO is commissioning Nicholas to create a new choreographed visual accompaniment for America the Beautiful using imagery he’s photographed in some of the country’s most beautiful places. Additionally, on the first half of the program, the orchestra will be tipping its hat to Tucson’s strong cultural connection to its close neighbor—Mexico—with a performance of our latest visual piece, Mágico.
We’re excited to return to Arizona and showcase the stunning vistas, desert beauty, and surprising islands of life in the Grand Canyon State’s epic namesake. See you at the show!
