Grand Canyon goes to Rogue Valley for Season Closer
The Rogue Valley Symphony performs its concerts across three cities in a beautiful valley in south central Oregon. For their April season closer we transported the audience to another beautiful corner of the country—the Grand Canyon.
Maestro Martin Majkut and the RVS programmed a triple concert series titled “Visit the Grand Canyon” with our Grand Canyon Country as the centerpiece. From river to rim, Grand Canyon Country explores the many facets of this geologic wonder and its emblematic desert surroundings alongside Ferde Grofé’s beloved music, Grand Canyon Suite.
The visual accompaniment originated from a co-commission by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and The Phoenix Symphony to honor the Arizona state centennial and has since been performed from Ohio to Texas to California as well as abroad in Poland and Germany.
The photographic production involved over two months of capturing thousands of images in the Grand Canyon region—including a 9-day raft trip down the Colorado River! Additional material came from the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park, Antelope Canyon, as well as a lively, small town rodeo just outside the Grand Canyon in Williams, AZ for the audience-favorite On the Trail movement.
In Oregon, two of three concerts took place in downtown Medford at the historic Craterian Theater and one was held at the Performing Arts Center in Grants Pass. Also on the program was a stunning rendition of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto by cellist Tommy Mesa and Joan Tower’s Made in America.
This is our first collaboration with Maestro Majkut and the RVS and we can’t wait to bring another concert experience to the Rogue Valley in the future!
